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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



VICE-ADMIRAL, LORD NELSON. 

From the portrait in the possession of Sir W, Biddulph Parker, 
Bart., Blackbrook House, Fareham, Hants. On the back of the 
pidtire is written, " This head was sketched from the Hero during 
his short stay at Merton, the beginning of September, 1805, by me, 
fohn WhicheloP 



^. / 



THE 



LIFE OF NELSON 



THE EMBODIMENT 



Sea Power or Great Britain 



CAPTAIN A. T. MAHAN, D.C.L., LL.D. 

Winitta States Wabg 

AUTHOR OF "the INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER tIPON HISTORY, 1660-1783" "THE 

INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND 

EMPIRE," AND OF A "LIFE OF ADMIRAL FARRAGUT " 



SStcanb lEtition, lEleijisctJ 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1899 



'VM^2 



Copyright, 1897, 1899, 
By Captain A. T. Mahan. 

All rights reserved 




SEntbcrsttg JSrcss : 

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



-boUT-^ 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



SINCE the first publication of this book, there have 
appeared two principal criticisms upon the accuracy 
of its presentation of Nelson. The first, in order of time, 
revived the often debated question of his action towards 
the Neapolitan republicans, in 1799, challenging the 
author's verdict with much parade of evidence. The 
second disputed the estimate of Nelson's affection for his 
wife, basing the argument chiefly upon some recently found 
letters from him to her, the hiding-place of which had 
escaped even the diligent search of Sir Harris Nicolas. 

Concerning the former of these, the author, after due 
consideration, has seen no cause to change the opinion 
first expressed ; but he has recognized a necessity to pro- 
tect the fair fame of the admiral, as well as to fortify his 
own position, by recasting and amplifying the discussion 
of the subject. He has therefore embodied in the text 
such demonstration of Nelson's integrity as may in the 
future enable a studious reader to rebut the accusations, 
if renewed. 

As regards Nelson's affection for his wife, it is enough 
to say that the author never thought or said that he did 
not love her tenderly at marriage, and for years after- 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



wards. But there is love and love. What was noted, 
and emphasized, was the absence of any tendency to 
idealize her, as he did other women to whom he became 
attached from time to time, and as lovei"s commonly do. 
The newly found letters, as far as published, — the author 
has not been permitted to see the others, — afford no 
reason to modify this remark, and consequently no change 
of treatment has been made. These letters contain also 
some small details which have novelty and interest, con- 
nected with the separation between Nelson and his wife. 
These have been incorporated in the text ; but, beyond 
accentuating slightly his hardness to her in the particular 
instance, they throw no new light upon his character. 

As far as they go, these new letters confirm the remark 
made more than once by the author during his first study 
of the life of Nelson : that more letters might yet be 
found ; that a trivial detail of fact might here and there 
receive correction, altering a little the background, or 
the framing, of the portrait; but that the mass of cor- 
respondence published by Nicolas was so extensive, so 
continuous, and addressed to so many different persons, as 
to make it highly improbable that any further light, not 
to be found in those volumes, would be shed upon the ad- 
miral's character. So much being known, biographies of 
Nelson will contrast one with another, not in point of 
abundance of material, but, as portraits do, according to 
the ability of the workman to reproduce, from the original 
before him, an impression of the man which shall be at 
once true, full, and living. 

The work of revision has embraced also the correction 
or amplification of certain minor details, noted by the 
author himself or by others. Of these, the most impor- 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



tant concerns the reason for withholding the medals for 
Copenhagen. In the author's judgment, his previous pre- 
sentment of Nelson's character and conduct is not affected 
in the slightest degree hy these changes. They are part 
of the frame, not of the pictme. 

A. T. M. 

April, 1899. 



PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST EDITION 



THE Life of Nelson has been written so often, that an 
explanation — almost an apology — seems cine for any 
renewal of the attempt ; but, not to mention the attractive- 
ness of the theme in itself, it is essential to the complete- 
ness and rounding off of the author's discussion of the 
Influence of Sea Power, that he present a study, from his 
own point of view, of the one man who in himself summed 
up and embodied the greatness of the possibilities which 
Sea Power comprehends, — the man for whom genius and 
opportunity worked together, to make him the personifica- 
tion of the Navy of Great Britain, the dominant factor in 
the periods hitherto treated. In the century and a half 
embraced in those periods, the tide of influence and of 
power has swelled higher and higher, floating upward 
before the eyes of mankind many a distinguished name; 
but it is not until their close that one arises in whom all 
the promises of the past find their finished realization, 
their perfect fulfilment. Thenceforward the name of Nel- 
son is enrolled among those few presented to us by His- 
tory, the simple mention of which suggests, not merely a 
personality or a career, but a great force or a great era 
concrete in a single man, who is its standard-bearer before 
the nations. 

Yet, in this process of exaltation, the man himself, even 
when so very human and so very near our own time as 
Nelson is, suffers from an association which merges his 
individuality in the splendor of his surroundings; and it 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



is perhaps pardonable to hope that the subject is not so 
far exhausted but that a new worker, gleaning after the 
reapers, may contribute something further towards disen- 
gaging the figure of the hero from the glory that cloaks it. 
The aim of the present writer, while not neglecting other 
sources of knowledge, has been to make Nelson describe 
himself, — • tell the story of his own inner life as well as of 
his external actions. To realize this object, it has not 
seemed the best way to insert numerous letters, because, 
in the career of a man of action, each one commonly deals 
with a variety of subjects, which bear to one another little 
relation, except that, at the moment of writing, they all 
formed part of the multifold life the writer was then lead- 
ing. It is true, life in general is passed in that way ; but 
it is not by such distraction of interest among minute de- 
tails that a particular life is best understood. Few let- 
ters, therefore, have been inserted entire ; and those which 
have, have been chosen because of their unity of subject, 
and of their value as characteristic. 
4 The author's method has been to make a careful study 
of Nelson's voluminous correspondence, analyzing it, in 
order to detect the leading features of temperament, traits 
of thought, and motives of action ; and thence to conceive 
within himself, by gradual familiarity even more than by 
formal effort, the character therein revealed. The impres- 
sion thus produced he has sought to convey to others, 
partly in the form of ordinary narrative, — daily living 
with his hero, — and partly by such grouping of incidents 
and utterances, not always, nor even nearly, simultaneous, 
as shall serve by their joint evidence to emphasize particu- 
lar traits, or particular opinions, more forcibly than when 
such testimonies are scattered far apart ; as they would be, 
if recounted in a strict order of time. 

A like method of treatment has been pursued in regard 
to that purely external part of Nelson's career in which 
are embraced his military actions, as well as his public and 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



private life. The same aim is kept in view of showing 
clearly, not only what he did, but the principles which 
dominated his military thought, and guided his military 
actions, throughout his life; or, it may be, such changes 
as must inevitably occur in the development of a man who 
truly lives. This cannot be done satisfactorily without 
concentrating the evidence from time to time; and it is 
therefore a duty a writer owes to his readers, if they wish 
such acquaintance with his subject as he thinks he has 
succeeded in acquiring for himself. 

The author has received individual assistance from sev- 
eral persons. To a general expression of thanks he wishes 
to add his special acknowledgments to the present Earl 
Nelson, through whose aid he has obtained information of 
interest which otherwise probably would have escaped 
him; and to Lords Radstock and De Saumarez, both of 
whom have been good enough to place in his hands letters 
contemporary with Nelson, and touching incidentally mat- 
ters that throw light on his career. Material of the same 
kind has also been furnished him by Professor John Knox 
Laughton, whose knowledge of Nelson and of the Navy of 
that period is second to none; it is not the least of the 
writer's advantages that he has had before him, to check 
possible errors in either fact or conclusions, the admiralile, 
though brief. Life of Nelson published by Mr. Laughton 
two years since. 

Illustrative anecdotes have also been supplied by Ad- 
miral Sir William R. Mends, G. C. B., who has shown 
his continued interest in tlie work by the trouble he has 
taken for it; by Mr. Stuart J. Reid, of Blackwell Cliff, 
East Grinstead; and by Mr. Edgar Goble, of Fareham, 
Hants, Mr. B. F. Stevens, of 4 Trafalgar Square, has 
also kindly exerted himself on several occasions to obtain 
needed information. To Mrs. F. H. B. Eccles, of Sher- 
well House, Plymouth, granddaughter of Josiah Nisbet, 
Nelson's stepson, the author is indebted for reminiscences 



PREFACE to THE FIRST EDITION 



of Lady Nelson, and for her portrait here published ; and 
his thanks are also due to Lieutenant-Colonel "W. Clement 
D. Esdaile, of Burley ISIanor, Ringwood, Hants, through 
whom he was brought into communication with ]\Irs. 
Eccles, and who has in other ways helped him. 

Throughout the writing of the book constant assistance 
has been received from Mr. Robert B. Marston, to whom 
cordial acknowledgment is made for the untiring pains 
taken in prosecuting necessary inquiries, which could not 
have been done without great delay by one not living in 
England. Suggestions valuable to the completeness of 
the work have been given also by INIr. ]\Iarston. 

For the portrait of Mrs. Philip Ward, the "Horatia'' 
whom Nelson called generally his adopted daughter, but 
at times spoke of as his daughter simply, and whom, on 
the last morning of his life, he commended to the care of 
his Country, the author has to thank Mr. and Mrs. Nelson 
Ward, of 15 Lancaster Road, Belsize Park, London. Mr. 
Nelson Ward is her son. 

To the more usual sources of information already in 
print, it is not necessary to refer in detail ; but it is right 
to mention especially the collection of Hamilton and Nel- 
son letters, published by Mr. Alfred Morrison, a copy of 
Avhich by his polite attention was sent the writer, and upon 
which must necessarily be based such account of Nelson's 
relations with Lady Hamilton as, unfortunately, cannot 
be omitted wholly from a life so profoundly affected by 

them. 

A. T. MAHAN. 

March, 1897. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
1758-1783. 



Page 
The First Tweutj-Five Years ... 1 



CHAPTER II. 

1784-1793. Age, 26-34. 

The Cruise of the "Boreas." — Controversy over the Enforcement of 
the Navigation Act. — Keturn to England. — Retirement until the 
Outbrealv of the French Revolution. — Appointed to c(jramand the 
" Agamemnon," 64 38 

CHAPTER III. 

Febkdarv-Decembek, 1793. Age, 34. 

Nelson's Departure from England in the "Agamemnon." — Services in 
the Mediterranean until the Recovery of Toulon by the French. — 
Lord Hood in Command 82 

CHAPTER IV. 

January-December, 1794. Age, 35. 

Reduction of Corsica by the British. — Departure of Lord Hood for 

England. — The " Agamemnon" Refitted at Leghorn 101 

CHAPTER Y. 

January-Jult, 1795. Age, 36. 

Nelson's Services with the Fleet in the Mediterranean under Admiral 
Hotham. — Partial Fleet Actions of March 13 and 14, and July 13. 
— Nelson ordered to command a Detached Squadron co-operating 
with the Austrian Army in the Riviera of Genoa 13^ 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VI. 

JuLT-DjiCEMBEK, 1795. Age, 37. 

Page 
Nelson's Coniinaud of a Detached Squadron on the Riviera of Genoa, 
until the Defeat of the Austriaus at the Battle of Loano. — Sir Joiin 
Jervis appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean . . . 157 

CHAPTER VII. 

January-December, 1796. Age, 38. 

Nelson's Services in the Mediterranean during the Year 1796. — Bona- 
parte's Italian Campaign. — The Britisii abandon Corsica, and the 
Fleet leaves the Mediterranean 179 



CHAPTER Ylll. 

December, 1796-JuNE, 1797. Age, 38. 

The Evacuation of Elba. — Niglit Combat with Two Spanish Frigates. 

— Battle of Cape St. Vincent. — Nelson Promoted to Kear-Admiral. 

— Services before Cadiz 221 



CHAPTER IX. 

July, 1797-Apkil, 1798. Age, 39. 

The Unsuccessful Attempt against Teneriffe. — Nelson loses his Right 
Arm. — Return to England. — Rejoins St. Vincent's Fleet, and sent 
into the Mediterranean to watch the Toulon Armament .... 253 

CHAPTER X. 

May-September, 1798. Age, 39. 
The Campaign and Battle of the Nile 271 

CHAPTER XI. 

September-December, 1798. Age, 40. 

Nelson's Return from Egypt to Naples. — Meeting with Lady Hamilton. 
— Association with the Court of Naples. — War between Naples 
and France. — Defeat of the Neapolitans. — Flight of the Court to 
I'alermo 314 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XII. 

January-May, 1799. Age, 40. 

Page 
Nelson's Career, and General Events in the Mediterranean and Ital}-, 
from tlie Overthrow of the Royal Government in Naples to the In- 
cursion of the French Fleet under Admiral Bruix 342 



CHAPTER XHI. 

May-July, 1799. Age, 40. 

From the Incursion of tlie French Fleet under Bruix to the Restoration 
of the Royal Authority at Naples. — The Caracciolo Execution. — 
Nelson's Disohedience to Admiral Lord Keith 358 



CHAPTER XIV. 

August, 1799-June, 1800. Age, 41. 

Nelson temporarily Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. — Re- 
lieved by Lord Keith. — Applies to return to England on account 
of 111 Health 405 



CHAPTER XV. 

June, 1800-Januaky, 1801. Age, 42. 

Nelson leaves the Mediterranean. — The Journey Overland through 
Germany. — Arrival in England. — Separation from Lady Nelson. — 
Hoists his Flag in the Channel Fleet, under Lord St. Vincent . . . 435 

CHAPTER XVI. 

February-June, 1801. Age, 42. 

The Expedition to the Baltic and Battle of Copenhagen. — Nelson re- 
turns to England - 456 

CHAPTER XVIL 

July-October, 1801. Age, 43. 

Nelson commands the " Squadron on a Particular Service," for the 
Defence of the Coast of England against Invasion. — Signature of 
Preliminaries of Peace with France 505 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

OcTOBEi!, 1801-May, 1803. Age, 43-44. 

Page 
Release from Active Service iluriiig the Peace of Amiens. — Home Life 

at jNlerton. — Public Incidents 529 



CHAPTER XIX. 

May, 1803-Januarv, 1805. Age, 45-46. 

Commander-in-Chief in tlie Mediterranean. — The Long Watch off 

Toulon. — Occupations of a Commander-in-Chief 557 

CHAPTER XX. 

January-Adgust, 1805. Age, 46. 

The Escape and Pursuit of the Toulon Fleet. — Nelson's Return to 

England 632 

CHAPTER XXI. 

August 19-September 15, 1805. Age, 46. 
Nelson's Last Stay in England . 677 

CHAPTER XXIL 

September 15-October 19, 1805. Age, 47. 

The Antecedents of Trafalgar 691 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

October 19-21, 1805. Age, 47. 

Trafalgar. — The Death of Nelson 713 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Vice-Admiral, Lord Nelson Frontispiece 

From the portrait in the possession of ISir W. Biddulph Parker, 
Bart, of Blackbrooli House, Fareham, Hants. On the back of the 
picture is written, " This head was sketched from the Hero during 
his short stay at Merton, the beginning of September, 1 805, by me, 
John Whichelo." 

Admiral, Lord Hood 122 

From the painting by L. F. Abbott, in the National Portrait 
Gallery. 
Admiral, Sir John Jervis, Earl of St. Vincent . . . 184 
From an engraving by H. Robinson, after the painting by John 
Hoppner, in St James's Palace. 

Sir Thomas Troubridge 260 

From the painting by Sir William Beechey. 

Lady Nelson 262 

From a photograpli by Mr. E. Kelly, of Plymouth, of a minia- 
ture in the possession of Mrs. F. H. B. Eccles, of Sherwell House, 
Plymouth, a great-granddaughter of Lady Nelson. Believed to 
have been painted about the time of the Battle of the Nile. 

Rear-Admiral, Sir Horatio Nelson in 1798 272 

From the painting by L. F. Abbott, in the National Portrait 
Gallery. 

Emma, Lady Hamilton 318 

After a painting by G. Romney. 

Vice-Admiral, Sir Hyde Parker 481 

After the painting by George Romney. 
H. M. Ships "Agamemnon," "Captain," "Vanguard," 

"Elephant," and "Victory." 558 

From an engraving by J. Fittler, after the painting by N. Pocock. 

Admiral Collingwood 670 

From the painting by Henry Howard, at Greenwich Hospital. 

Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy 736 

From the painting by Robert Evans, at Greenwich Hospital. 

Horatia, at twenty-two years of age 738 

From a miniature by Sir William Charles Ross, in the possession 
of Mr Nelson Ward. 



MAPS AND BATTLE PLANS. 



Page 

Map of Northern Italy, and Corsica 102 

The "Agamemnon" and the " (^a Ira" 140 

Partial Fleet Action, March 14, 1795 143 

Battle of Cape St. Vincent, Figures 1 and 2 . . . . 230 

Battle of Cape St. Vincent, Figure 3 ...... . 233 

Map of the Mediterranean 276 

Map of Coast-line, Alexandria to Rosetta 293 

Map of Aboukir Bay 296 

Battle of the Nile, First Stage 298 

Battle of the Nile, Second Stage 301 

Map of the Baltic and its Approaches 468 

Battle of Copenhagen, Plan Number 1 473 

Battle of Copenhagen, Plan Number 2 476 

Map of the English Channel and North Sea .... 508 

Map of Sardinia 576 

Map of the North Atlantic 675 

Plans of Attack, issued May, 1805, Figures 1, 2, and 3 695 

Plan of Attack for Trafalgar, Figure 1 698 

Plan of Attack for Trafalgar, Figure 2 702 

The Attack at Trafalgar 720 

Track Chart, giving the General Lines of Nelson's 
Cruisings, from Lieutenant in the Lowestoffe 1777 

TO 1805 742 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



CHAPTER I. 

The First Twenty-Five Years. 

1758-1783. 

IT is the appointed lot of some of History's chosen few to 
come upon the scene at tlie moment when a great tendency 
is nearing its crisis and culmination. Specially gifted with 
qualities needed to realize the fulness of its possibilities, they 
so identify themselves with it by their deeds that they thence- 
forth personify to the world the movement which brought them 
forth, and of which their own achievements are at once the 
climax and the most dazzling illustration. Fewer still, but 
happiest of all, viewed from the standpoint of fame, are those 
whose departure is as well timed as their appearance, who do 
not survive the instant of perfected success, to linger on sub- 
jected to the searching tests of common life, but pass from our 
ken in a blaze of glory which thenceforth forever encircles 
their names. In that evening light break away and vanish the 
ominous clouds wherewith human frailties or tyrant passions 
had threatened to darken their renown ; and their sun goes 
down with a lustre which the lapse of time is powerless to dim. 
Such was the privilege of the stainless Wolfe ; such, beyond 
all others, that of Nelson. Earely has a man been more 
favored in the hour of his appearing ; never one so fortunate 
in the moment of his death. 

Yet, however accidental, or providential, this rarely allotted 
portion, this crowning incident of an heroic career, it is after 
all but an incident. It the man has not contrived; but to it 
he has contributed much, withou.t which his passing hour would 
have faded to memory, undistinguished among those of the 
myriads, great and small, who have died as nobly and are 

1 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



forever forgotten. A sun has set; but before its setting it has 
run a course, be it long or short, and has gathered a radiance 
which iixes upon its parting beams the rapt attention of be- 
holders. The man's self and the man's works, what he was 
and what he did, the nature which brought forth such fruits, 
the thoughts which issued in such acts, hopes, fears, desires, 
quick intuitions, painful struggles, lofty ambitions, happy- 
opportunities, have blended to form that luminous whole, 
known and seen of all, but not to be understood excej)t by a 
patient effort to resolve the great result into its several rays, 
to separate the strands whose twisting has made so strong a 
cord. 

Concerning the man's external acts, it will often happen that 
their true value and significance can best be learned, not from 
his own personal recital, but from an analytic study of the 
deeds themselves. Yet into them, too, often enters, not only 
the subtile working of their author's natural qualities, but also 
a certain previous history of well-defined opinions, of settled 
principles firmly held, of trains of thought and reasoning, of 
intuitions wrought into rational convictions, all of which betray 
both temjierament and character. Of these intellectual ante- 
cedents, the existence and development may be gleaned from 
his writings, confirming the inference reached somewhat 
mechanically by the scrutiny of his actions. They play to the 
latter the part of the soul to the body, and thus contribute to 
the rather anatomical result of the dissecting process a spiritual 
element it would otherwise lack. But if this is so even of the 
outward career, it is far more deeply true of the inner history, 
of that underlying native character, which masterfully moulds 
and colors every life, yet evades the last analysis except when 
the obscure workings of heart and mind have been laid bare 
by their owner's words, recording the feelings of the fleeting 
hour with no view to future inspection. In these revelations 
of self, made Avithout thought of the world outside, is to be 
found, if anywhere, the clue to that complex and often contra- 
dictory mingling of qualities which go to form the oneness of 
the man's personality. This discordance between essential 
unity and superficial diversities must be harmonized, if a true 
conception of his being is to be formed. We know the faces 
of our friends, but we see each as one. The features can, if 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 



we will, be separately considered, catalogued, and valued ; but 
who ever thus thinks habitually of one he knows well ? Yet 
to know well must be the aim of biography, — so to present 
the traits in their totality, without suppression of any, and in 
their true relative proportions, as to produce, not the blurred 
or distorted outlines seen through an imperfect lens, but the 
vivid apprehension which follows long intimacy with its con- 
tinual, though unconscious, process of correction. 

For such a treatment of Nelson's character, copious, if im- 
perfect, material is afforded in his extensive and varied corre- 
spondence. From it the author aims, first, to draw forth a 
distinct and living image of the man himself, as sketched there- 
in at random and loosely by his own hand. It is sought to 
reach the result by keeping the reader in constant contact, as 
by daily acquaintance, with a personality of mingled weakness 
and strength, of grave faults as well as of great virtues, but 
one whose charm was felt in life by all who knew it. The 
second object, far less ambitious, is to present a clear narrative 
of the military career, of the mighty deeds of arms, of this 
first of British seamen, whoiii the gifts of Nature and the course 
of History have united to make, in his victories and in their 
results, the representative figure of the greatest sea-power that 
the world has known. 

It will not be thought surprising that we have, of the first 
thirty years of Nelson's life, no such daily informal record as 
that which illustrates the comparatively brief but teeming 
period of his active fighting career, from 1793 to 1805, when 
he at once, with inevitable directness and singular rapidity, 
rose to prominence, and established intimate relations with 
numbers of his contemporaries. A few anecdotes, more or less 
characteristic, have been preserved concerning his boyhood and 
youth. In his early manhood we have his own account, both 
explicit and implied in many casual unpremeditated phrases, 
of the motives which governed his public conduct in an episode 
occurring when, scarcely yet more than a youth, he commanded 
a frigate in the West Indies, — the whole singularly confirma- 
tory, it might better be said prophetic, of the distinguishing 
qualities afterwards so brilliantly manifested in his maturity. 
But beyond these, it is only by the closest attention and careful 
gleaning that can be found, in the defective and discontinuous 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



collection of letters which remains from his first thirty years, 
the indisputable tokens, in most important particulars, of the 
man that was to be. 

The external details of this generally uneventful jieriod can 
be rapidly summarized. He was born on the 29th of Septem- 
ber, 1758, the fifth son and sixth child of Edmund Nelson, then 
rector of the parish of Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, a county 
which lies along the eastern coast of England, bordering the 
North Sea. His mother, whose name before marriage was 
Catherine Suckling, was grandniece to Sir Eobert WaljDole, 
the famous prime minister of Great Britain during twenty years 
of the reigns of the first two Georges. Sir Robert's second 
brother was called Horatio ; and it was from the latter, or from 
his son, that the future hero took his baptismal name, which, 
in a more common form, was also that of Sir Robert's younger 
son, the celebrated letter and memoir writer, Horace Walpole. 

Of the eleven children borne by Nelson's mother in her 
eighteen wedded years, only two lived to grow old. She her- 
self died at forty-two ; and her brother. Captain Maurice 
Suckling, of the Royal Navy, was also cut off in the prime of 
his age. As the earlier Nelsons were unusually long-lived, it 
seems probable that a certain delicacy of constitution was 
transmitted through the Sucklings to the generation to which 
the admiral belonged. He was himself, at various periods 
through life, a great sufferer, and frequently an invalid ; allu- 
sions to illness, often of a most prostrating type, and to his 
susceptibility to the influences of climate or weather, occur 
repeatedly and at brief intervals throughout his correspond- 
ence. This is a factor in his career which should not be lost 
to mind; for on the one hand it explains in part the fretful- 
ness which at times appears, and on the other brings out with 
increased force the general kindly sweetness of his temper, 
which breathed with slight abatement through such depressing 
conditions. It enhances, too, the strength of purpose that 
trod bodily weakness under foot, almost unconsciously, at the 
call of duty or of honor. It is notable, in his letters, that the 
necessity for exertion, even when involving severe exposure, 
is apt to be followed, though without apparent recognition of 
a connection between the two, by the remark that he has not 
for a long time been so well. He probably experienced, as 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 



have others, that it is not the greater hardships of the profes- 
sion, much less the clangers, but its uncertainties and petty 
vexations, which tell most severely on a high-strung organiza- 
tion like his own. 

The immediate occasion of his going to sea was as follows. 
In 1770 the Falkland Islands, a desolate and then unimportant 
group, lying in the South Atlantic, to the eastward of Pata- 
gonia, were claimed as a possession by both Spain and Great 
Britain. The latter had upon them a settlement called Fort 
Egmont, before which, in the year named, an overwhelming 
Spanish squadron suddenly appeared, and compelled the 
British occupants to lower their flag. The insult aroused 
public indignation in England to the highest pitch ; and, while 
peremptory demands for reparation were despatched to Spain, 
a number of ships of war were ordered at once into commis- 
sion. Among these was the " Eaisonnable," of sixty- four 
guns, to the command of which was appointed Nelson's uncle. 
Captain Maurice Suckling. The latter had some time before 
promised to provide for one of his sister's children, the family 
being very poor ; and, the custom of the day permitting 
naval captains, as a kind of patronage, to take into the 
King's service on board their own ships a certain number of 
lads, as midshipmen or otherwise, the opportunity of giving a 
nephew a start in life was now in his hands. The story is 
that Horatio, though then but twelve years old, realized the 
burden of pecuniary care that his father was carrying, and 
himself volunteered the wish that his uncle would take him to 
sea. However it happened, the suggestion staggered Suckling, 
who well knew the lad's puny frame and fragile constitution. 
''What has poor little Horatio done," cried he, "that he, being 
so weak, should be sent to rough it at sea ? But let him 
come, and if a cannon-ball takes off his head, he will at least 
be provided for." Under such gloomy foreboding began the 
most dazzling career that the sea, the mother of so many 
heroes, has ever seen.^ 

1 The precise date of Xelson's entering the Navy, which would be that of his 
being rated upon the books of the " Raisonnable," is not stated. Accepting 
the times during which he was borne upon the books of different ships, as 
given by Sir Harris Nicolas (Letters and Despatches of Lord Nelson, vol. i. 
p. 4, note), and with them calculating back from October 15, 1773, the day 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



Spain, after a short hesitation, yielded the British demands, 
so that war did not come, and the " Eaisonnable," with 
other ships, was again put out of commission. The incident 
of the Falkland Islands, however, had served the purpose of 
introducing Nelson to his profession, for which otherwise the 
opportunity might not have offered. Being so young when 
thus embarked, he, in common with many of the most success- 
ful seamen of that day, got scanty schooling ; nor did he, as 
some others did, by after application remedy the eccentricities 
of style, and even of grammar, which are apt to result from 
such early neglect. His letters, vigorous and direct as they 
are, present neither the polished diction of Collingwood, nor 
the usual even correctness of St. Vincent and Saumarez, but 
are, on the contrary, constantly disfigured by awkward expres- 
sions and bad English. There was rarely, however, danger of 
mistaking his meaning, as was sometimes charged against 
Lord Howe. 

Here, before fairly parting with the humble home life, of 
which the motherless boy had seen, and was throughout his 
career to see so little, is a fit place to introduce two anecdotes 
associated with those early days which his biographers have 
transmitted to us. We of these critical times have learned to 
look with incredulity, not always unmixed with derision, upon 
stories relating to the childhood of distinguished men ; but it 
can safely be said that the two now to be given are in entire 
keeping, not merely with particular traits, but with the great 
ruling tenor of Nelson's whole life. He and his elder brother 
were going to school one winter day upon their ponies. Find- 
ing the snow so deep as to delay them seriously, they went 
back, and the elder reported that they could not get on. The 

mentioned by Nelson himself as that on which he was paid off from the 
"Carcass" (Nicolas, p. 5), the date of entry upon the books of the 
" Raisoiinable " would be November 27, 1770; unless, which is unlikely, 
there were any lost days. The news of the Port Egmont business reached 
England in October, 1770. Clarke and M'Arthur (Life of Nelson, vol. i. 
p. 14, note) infer January 1, 1771, for his entry u])on the " Raisonnable's " 
books ; but this would not allow the times which Nicolas gives with minute 
exactness. For his actually joining the " Raisonnable " they give, loosely, 
the spring of 1771, — March or April. This is very possible, as rating back, 
for the sake of gaining constructive time needed to qualify for promotion, was 
tolerated by the practice of the day. 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 



father very judiciously replied: "If that be so, I have of 
course nothing to say ; but I wish you to try again, and I 
leave it to your honour not to turn back, unless necessary." 
On the second attempt, the elder was more than once for 
returning; but Horatio stuck it out, repeating continually, 
"Eemember it was left to our honour," and the difficult 
journey was accomplished. 

The children in this instance seem to have felt that there 
was danger in going on. The other recorded occurrence shows 
in the lad that indifference to personal benefit, as distinguished 
from the sense of conspicuous achievement, which was ever a 
prominent characteristic of the man. The master of his 
school had a very fine pear-tree, whose fruit the boys coveted, 
but upon which none dared hazard an attempt. At last 
Nelson, who did not share their desires, undertook the risk, 
climbed the tree by night, and carried off the pears, but 
refused to eat any of them, — sajang that he had taken them 
only because the others were afraid. 

Trivial though these incidents may seem, they are so merely 
because they belong to the day of small things. To those 
accustomed to watch children, they will not appear unworthy 
of note. Taken together, they illustrate, as really as do his 
greatest deeds, the two forms assumed at different times by 
the one incentive which always most powerfully determined 
Nelson's action through life, — the motive to which an appeal 
was never made in vain. No material considerations, neither 
danger on the one hand, nor gain on the other, ever affected 
him as did that idealized conception which presented itself, 
now as duty, now as honor, according as it bore for the mo- 
ment upon his relations to the state or to his own personality. 
'' In my mind's eye," said he to his friend Captain Hardy, who 
afterwards bent over him as his spirit was parting amid the 
tumult of his last victory, "I ever saw a radiant orb suspended 
which beckoned me onward to renown." Nelson did not often 
verge upon the poetical in words, but to the poetry of lofty 
aspiration his inmost being always answered true. 

To the young naval officer of a century ago, especially if 
without political or social influence, it was a weighty advan- 
tage to be attached to some one commanding officer in active 
employment,, who by favorable opportunity or through pro- 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



fessional friendships could push the fortunes of those in 
whom he was interested. Much of the promotion was then 
in the hands of the admirals on foreign stations ; and this 
local power to reward distinguished service, though liable to 
abuse in many ways, conduced greatly to stimulate the zeal 
and efforts of officers who felt themselves immediately under 
the eye of one who could make or mar their future. Each 
naval captain, also, could in his degree affect more or less the 
prospects of those dependent upon him. Thus Suckling, 
though not going to sea himself, continued with intelligent 
solicitude his promised care of the young Nelson. When the 
" Raisonnable " was paid off, he was transferred to the com- 
mand of the " Triumph," of seventy-four guns, stationed as 
guard-ship in the river Med way ; and to her also he took with 
him his ne^^hew, who was borne upon her books for the two 
following years, which were, however, far from being a period 
of inactive harbor life. Having considerable professional 
interest, he saw to the lad's being kept afloat, and obtained 
for him from time to time such service as seemed most 
desirable to his enterjDrising spirit. 

The distinction between the merchant seaman and the man- 
of-war's man, or even the naval officer, in those days of sail- 
ing ships and simple weapons was much less sharply marked 
than it has since become. Skill in seamanship, from the use 
of the marlinespike and the sail-needle up to the full equipping 
of a ship and the handling of her under canvas, was in either 
service the prime essential. In both alike, cannon and small 
arms were carried ; and the ship's company, in the peaceful 
trader as well as in the ship of war, expected to repel force 
with force, when meeting upon equal terms. With a reduced 
number of naval vessels in commission, and their quarter- 
decks consequently over-crowded with young officers, a youth 
was more likely to find on board them a life of untasked idle- 
ness than a call to professional occupation and improvement. 
Nelson therefore was sent by his careful guardian to a mer- 
chant-ship trading to the West Indies, to learn iipon her, as 
a foremast hand, the elements of his profession, under condi- 
tions which, from the comparative fewness of the crew and 
the activity of the life, would tend to develop his powers most 
rapidly. In this vessel he imbibed, along with nautical knowl- 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 



edge, the prejudice which has usually existed, more or less, in 
the merchant marine against the naval service, due probably 
to the more rigorous exactions and longer terms of enlistment 
in the latter, although the life in other respects is one of less 
hardship; but in Nelson's day the feeling had been intensified 
by the practice of impressment, and by the severe, almost 
brutal discipline that obtained on board some ships of war, 
through the arbitrary use of their powers by captains, then 
insufficiently controlled by law. In this cruise he seems to 
have spent a little over a year ; a time, however, that was not 
lost to him for the accomplishment of the period of service 
technically required to qualify as a lieutenant, his name con- 
tinuing throughout on the books of the " Triumph," to which 
he returned in July, 1772. 

Suckling's care next insured for him a continuance of active, 
semi-detached duty, in the boats of the " Triumph," — an 
employment very different from, and more responsible than, 
that in which he had recently been occupied, and particularly 
calculated to develop in so apt a nature the fearlessness of 
responsibility, both professional and personal, that was among 
the most' prominent features of Nelson's character. *' The 
test of a man's courage is responsibility," said that great 
admiral and shrewd judge of men, the Earl of St. Vincent, 
after a long and varied experience of naval officers ; and none 
ever shone more brightly under this supreme proof than the 
lad whose career is now opening before us. It may be inter- 
esting, too, to note that this condition of more or less detached 
service, so early begun, in which, though not in chief com- 
mand, he held an authority temporarily independent, and was 
immediately answerable for all that happened on the spot, 
was the singular characteristic of most of his brilliant course, 
during which, until 1803, two years before Trafalgar, he was 
only for brief periods commander-in-chief, yet almost always 
acted apart from his superior. Many a man, gallant, fearless, 
and capable, within signal distance of his admiral, has, when 
out of sight of the flag, succumbed" with feeble knees to the 
burden of independent responsible action, though not beyond 
his professional powers. This strength, like all Nature's best 
gifts, is inborn ; yet, both for the happy possessor and for the 
merely average man, it is susceptible of high development 



10 THE LIFE OF NELSOX 

only by being early exercised, which was the good fortune 
of Nelson. 

Of these two years of somewhat irregular service, while 
nominally attached to the " Triumph," it will be well to give 
the account in his own words ; for, having been written a full 
quarter of a century later, they record the deepest and most 
lasting impressions made upon him during that susceptible 
period when first becoming familiar Avith the calling he was 
to adorn : — 

" The business with Spain being accommodated, I was sent in a 
West India ship belonging to tlie house of Hibbert, Furrier, and 
Horton, with Mr. John Rathbone, who had formerly been in the 
Navy, in the Dreadnought with Captain Suckling. From this voyage 
I returned to the triumph at Chatham in July, 1772 ; and, if I did not 
improve in my education, I returned a practical Seaman, with a horror 
of the Royal Xavy, and with a saying, then constant with the Sea- 
men, ' Afl tlie most honour, forward the Letter inati ! ' It was many 
weeks before I got the least reconciled to a Mau-of-War, so deep was 
the prejudice rooted ; and what pains were taken to instil tliis erro- 
neous principle in a young mind ! However, as my ambition was to 
be a Seaman, it was always held out as a reward, that if I attended 
well to my navigation, I should go in the cutter and decked long-boat, 
which was attached to the Commanding officer's ship at Chatham. 
Thus by degrees I became a good pilot, for vessels of that description, 
from Chatham to the Tower of London, down the Swin, and the 
North Foreland; and confident of myself amongst rocks and sands, 
which has many times since been of great comfort to me. In this 
way I was trained, till the expedition towards the North Pole was 
fitted out; when, although no boys were allowed to go in the Ships, 
(as of no use,) yet nothing could prevent my using every interest to 
go with Captain Lutwidge in the Carcass ; and, as I fancied I was to 
fill a man's place, I begged I might be his cockswain ; which, finding 
my ardent desire for going with him, Captain Lutwidge complied with, 
and lias continued the strictest friendship to this moment. Lord 
Mulgrave, whom I then first knew, maintained his kindest friendship 
and regard to the last moment of his life. Wlien the boats were fit- 
ting out to quit the two Ships blocked up in the ice, I exerted myself 
to have the command of a four-oared cutter raised upon, which was 
given me, with twelve men; and I prided myself in fancying I could 
navigate her better than any other boat in the Ship." 

It will be recognized from this brief yet suggestive and 
characteristic narrative, that, however valuable and even 



THE riKST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 11 

indispensable may have been his uncle's assistance in forward- 
ing his wishes, it was his own ambition and his own impulse 
that even at this early day gave direction to his course, and 
obtained opportunities which would scarcely have been offered 
spontaneously to one of his physical frailty. In this Arctic 
expedition he underwent the experiences common to all who 
tempt those icebound seas. During it occurred an incident 
illustrative of iSTelson's recklessness of personal danger, — a 
very different thing from official recklessness, which he never 
showed even in his moments of greatest daring and highest 
inspiration. The story is so hackneyed by frequent repetition 
as to make its relation a weariness to the biographer, the 
more so that the trait of extreme rashness iu youth is one 
by no means so rare as to be specially significant of Nel- 
son's character. It will be given in the words of his first 
biographers : — 

"There is also an anecdote recollected by Admiral Lutwidge, 
which marked the fiUal attention of his gallant cockswain. Among 
the gentlemen on the quarter-deck of the Carcass, who were not 
rated midsldpmen, there was, besides young Nelson, a daring ship- 
mate of his, to whom he had become attached. One night, during 
the mid-watch, it was concerted between them that tliey should steal 
together from the ship and endeavour to obtain a bear's skin. The 
clearness of the niglits iu those high latitudes rendered the accom- 
plishment of this object extremely difficult : they, however, seem to 
have taken advantage of the haze of an approaching fog, and thus to 
have escaped unnoticed. Nelson in high spirits led the way over the 
frightful chasms in the ice, armed with a rusty musket. It was not, 
however, long before the adventurers were missed by those on board ; 
and, as the fog had come on very thick, the anxiety of Captain Lut- 
widge and his officers was very great. Between three and four in 
the morning the mist somewhat dispersed, and the hunters were dis- 
covered at a considerable distance, attacking a large bear. The 
signal was instantly made for their return ; but it was in vain that 
Nelson's companion urged him to obey it. He was at this time 
divided by a chasm in the ice from his shaggy antagonist, which 
probably saved his life ; for the musket had flashed in the pan, and 
their ammunition was expended. ' Never mind,' exclaimed Horatio, 
' do but let me get a blow at this devil with the butt-end of my 
musket, and we shall have him.' His companion, finding that 
entreaty was in vain, regained the ship. The captain, seeing the 
young man's danger, ordered a gun to be fired to terrify the enraged 



12 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

animal. This had the desired eifect ; but Nelson was obliged to 
return without his bear, somewhat agitated with the apprehension of 
the consec^ueuce of this adventure. Captain Lutwidge, though he 
could not but admire so daring a disposition, reprimanded him 
rather sternly for such rashness, and for conduct so unworthy of the 
situation he occupied ; and desired to know what motive he could 
have for hunting a bear? Being thought by his captain to have 
acted in a manner unworthy of his situation, made a deep impression 
on the high-minded cockswain ; who, pouting his lip, as he was wont 
to do when agitated, replied, ' Sir, I wished to kill the bear, that I 
might carry its skin to my father.' " 

Upon his return to England from the Arctic Seas, Nelson 
again by his own choice determined his immediate future. 
Within a fortnight of leaving the " Carcass," he was, through 
his uncle's influence, received on board by the captain of the 
" Seahorse," of twenty guns, one of the ships composing a 
squadron that was just then fitting out for the East Indies. 
To quote himself, " Nothing less than such a distant voyage 
could in the least satisfy my desire of maritime knowledge." 
During an absence of three years he for much of the time, as 
formerly in his West India cruise, did the duty of a seaman 
aloft, from which he was afterwards rated midshipman, and 
placed, this time finally, upon the quarter-deck as an officer. 
In the ordinary course of cruising in peace times, he visited 
every part of the station from Bengal to Bussorah ; but the 
climate, trying even to vigorous Europeans, proved too much 
for his frail health. After a couple of years he broke down 
and was invalided home, reaching England in September, 1776. 
His escape from death was attributed by himself to the kind 
care of Captain Pigot of the " Dolphin," in which ship he came 
back. At this period we are told that, when well, he was of 
florid countenance, rather stout and athletic ; but, as the result 
of his illness, he was reduced to a mere skeleton, and for some 
time entirely lost the use of his limbs, — a distressing symp- 
tom, that returned iipon him a few years later after his Cen- 
tral American expedition in 17S0, and confirms the impression 
of extreme fragility of constitution, which is frequently indi- 
cated in other ways. 

During this absence in the East Indies Captain Suckling, in 
April, 1775, had been named Comptroller of the Navy, — a 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 13 

civil position, but one that carried with it power and conse- 
quent influence. This probably told for much in obtaining for 
Nelson, who was but just eighteen, and liad not yet passed the 
examinations for his first promotion, an acting appointment as 
lieutenant. With this he joined a small ship-of-the-line, the 
" Worcester," of sixty-four guns, on board which he remained 
for six months, engaged in convoy duty between the Channel 
and Gibraltar, seeing from her decks for the first time the 
waters of the Mediterranean and its approaches, since then 
indissolubly associated with his name and his glory. He took 
with him a letter from his uncle to the captain of his new 
ship ; but while such introduction, coming from so influential 
a quarter, doubtless contributed powerfully to clear from his 
path the obstacles commonly encountered by young men, 'Nel- 
son had gained for himself a reputation for professional 
capacity, which, here as throughout his life, quickly won him 
the full confidence of his superiors. In later years, when his 
admiral's flag was flying, he recorded, with evident pride in 
the recollection, that while on board the " Worcester," not- 
withstanding his youth, his captain used to say, " He felt as 
easy when I was u.pon deck as any officer of the ship." It is 
doubtful, indeed, whether Nelson ever possessed in a high 
degree the delicate knack of handling a ship with the utmost 
dexterity and precision. He certainly had not the reputation 
for so doing. Codrington — a thorough Nelsonian, to use his 
own somewhat factious expression — used to say in later years, 
" Lord Nelson was no seaman ; even in the earlier stages of 
the profession his genius had soared higher, and all his ener- 
gies were turned to becoming a great commander." His 
apprenticeship, before reaching command, was probably too 
short ; and, as captain, his generous disposition to trust others 
to do work for which he knew them fitted, would naturally 
lead him to throw the manipulation of the vessel upon his 
subordinates. But although, absorbed by broader and deeper 
thoughts of the responsibilities and opportunities of a naval 
commander, to which he was naturally attracted by both his 
genius and his temperament, he was excelled in technical skill 
by many who had no touch of his own inspiration, he never- 
theless possessed a thoroughly competent knowledge of his 
profession as a simple seaman ; which, joined to his zeal, 



14 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



energy, and intelligence, would more than justify the confi- 
dence expressed by his early commander. Of this knowledge 
he gave full proof a year later, when, before a board of cap- 
tains, strangers to him, he successfully passed his examina- 
tions for a lieutenancy. His uncle Suckling, as Comptroller 
of the Navy, was indeed on the board ; but he concealed the 
fact of relationship until the other members had expressed 
themselves satisfied. 

His examination was held within a week of his leaving the 
"Worcester," on the 8th of April, 1777; and Suckling once 
more, but for the last time in his life, was able to exert his 
influence in behalf of his relative by promptly securing for 
him, not only his promotion to lieutenant, which many waited 
for long, but with it his commission, dated April 10, to the 
" Lowestoffe," a frigate of thirty-two guns. This class of 
vessel was in the old days considered particularly desirable 
for young officers, being more active than ships-of-the-line, 
while at the same time more comfortable, and a better school 
for the forming of an officer, than were the smaller cruisers ; 
and his uncle probably felt that JSTelson, whose service hitherto 
had been mainly upon the latter, needed yet to perfect the 
habits and methods distinctive of a ship of war, for he now 
wrote him a letter upon the proprieties of naval conduct, 
excellently conceived, yet embracing particulars that should 
scarcely have been necessary to one who had served his time 
on board well-ordered ships. The appointment to the "Lowe- 
stoffe " was further fortunate, both for him and for us, as in 
the commander of the vessel, Captain William Locker, he 
found, not only an admirable officer and gentleman, but a 
friend for whom he formed a lasting attachment, ending only 
with Locker's death in 1800, two years after the Battle of the 
Nile. To this friendship we owe the fullest record, at his 
own hands, of his early career ; for Locker kept the numer- 
ous letters written him by Nelson while still an unknown 
young man. Of seventy odd which now remain, covering the 
years from 1777 to 1783, thirty-seven were to this one 
correspondent. 

In another respect the appointment to the " Lowestoffe " 
was fortunate for Nelson. The ship was destined to the 
West Indies — or, to speak more precisely, to Jamaica, 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 15 

which was a command distinct from that of the eastern 
Caribbean, or Lesser Antilles, officially styled the Leeward 
Islands Station. Great Britain was then fully embarked 
in the war with her ISTorth American colonies, which ended 
in their independence ; and the course of events was has- 
tening her to the rupture with France and Spain that fol- 
lowed within a year. In this protracted contest the chief 
scene of naval hostilities was to be the West Indies ; but 
beyond even the casualties of war, the baneful climate of 
that region insured numerous vacancies by prostration and 
death, with consequent chances of promotion for those who 
escaped the fevers, and found favor in the eyes of their 
commander-in-chief. The brutal levity of the old toast, 
"A bloody war and a sickly season," nowhere found surer 
fulfilment than on those pestilence-stricken coasts. Captain 
Locker's health soon gave way. Arriving at Jamaica on the 
19th of July, 1777, we find Nelson in the following month 
writing to him from the ship during an absence produced by 
a serious illness, from which fatal results were feared. The 
letter, like all those to Locker, was marked hy that tone of 
quick, eager sympathy, of genial inclination always to say 
the kindest thing, that characterized his correspondence, and, 
generally, his intercourse with others, — traits that through 
life made him, beyond most men, acceptable and beloved. 
He was, from first to last, not merely one of those whose 
services are forced upon others by sheer weight of ability, 
because indispensable, — though this, too, he was, — but men 
wanted him because, although at times irritable, especially 
after the wounds received in later years, he was an easy yoke- 
fellow, pleasant to deal with, cordial and ready to support 
those above him, a tolerant and appreciative master to sub- 
ordinates. It may even be said that, in matters indiffer- 
ent to him, he too readily reflected the feelings, views, and 
wishes of those about him ; but when they clashed with 
his own fixed convictions, he was immovable. As he himself 
said in such a case, "I feel I am perfectly right, and you 
know upon those occasions I am not famous for giving up a 
point." 

Of his connection with the " Lowestoffe " he himself, in 
the short autobiographical sketch before quoted, mentions 



16 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



two circumstances, which, from the very fact of their re- 
maining so long in his memory, illustrate temperament. 
" Even a frigate," he says, " was not sufficiently active for my 
mind, and I got into a schooner, tender to the Lowestoffe. 
In this vessel I made myself a complete pilot for all the 
passages through the [Keys] Islands situated on the north 
side Hispaniola." This kind of service, it will be noted, was 
in direct sequence, as to training, to his handling of the 
" Triumph's " long-boat in the lower waters of the Thames, 
and would naturally contribute to increase that " confidence 
in himself among rocks and sands," which was afterwards to 
be so " great a comfort " to him. In his later career he had 
frequent and pressing need of that particular form of profes- 
sional judgment and self-reliance for which these early expe- 
riences stood him in good stead. As he afterwards wrote to 
the First Lord of the Admiralty, when pleading the cause of 
a daring and skilful officer who had run his ship ashore : 
" If I had been censured every time I have run my ship, or 
fleets under my command, into great danger, I should long 
ago have been out of the service, and never in the House of 
Peers." At the critical instants of the Nile and Copenhagen, 
as well as in the less conspicuous but more prolonged anxieties 
of the operations off Corsica and along the Riviera of Genoa, 
this early habit, grafted upon the singularly steady nerve 
wherewith he was endowed by nature, sustained him at a 
height of daring and achievement to which very few have 
been able to rise. 

The other incident recorded by him as happening while on 
board the " Lowestoffe," he himself cites as illustrative of 
temperament. " Whilst in this frigate, an event happened 
which presaged my character ; and, as it conveys no dishonour 
to the officer alluded to, I shall insert it. Blowing a gale of 
wind, and a very heavy sea, the frigate captured an American 
letter-of-marque. The first Lieutenant was ordered to board 
her, which he did not do, owing to the very heavy sea. On 
his return, the Captain said, ' Have I no officer in the ship 
who can board the prize ? ' On which the Master ran to the 
gangway, to get into the boat : when I stopped him, saying, 
* It is my turn now ; and if I come back, it is yours.' This 
little incident," he continues, "has often occurred to my 



THE riEST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 17 

mind; and I know it is my disposition, that difficulties and 
dangers do but increase my desire of attempting them." An 
action of this sort, in its results unimportant, gives keener 
satisfaction in the remembrance than do greater deeds, because 
more purely individual, — entirely one's own. It is upon 
such as this, rather than upon his victories, that Nelson in 
his narrative dwells caressingly. His personal daring at St. 
Vincent, and against the gunboats off Cadiz, ministered more 
directly to his self-esteem, to that consciousness of high desert 
which was dear to him, than did the Battle of the Nile, whose 
honors he, though ungrudgingly, shared with his " band, of 
brothers." 

When the " Lowestoffe " had been a year upon the station, 
it became very doubtful whether Locker could continue in 
her, and finally he did go home ill. It was probably due to 
this uncertainty that he obtained the transfer of Nelson, in 
whom he had become most affectionately interested, to the 
"Bristol," flagship of Sir Peter Parker, the commander-in- 
chief. Here, under the admiral's own eye, warmly recom- 
mended by his last captain, and with a singular faculty for 
enlisting the love and esteem of all with whom he was brouglit 
into contact, the young officer's prospects were of the fairest; 
nor did the event belie them. Joining the " Bristol " as her 
third lieutenant, not earlier than July, 1778, he had by the 
end of September risen " by succession " — ■ to use his own 
phrase — to be first; a promotion by seniority whose rapidity 
attests the' rate at which vacancies occurred. Both Parker 
and his wife became very fond of him, cared for him in illness, 
and in later years she wrote to him upon each of the occasions 
on which he most brilliantly distinguished himself — after 
St. Vincent, the Nile, and. Copenhagen. "Your mother," said 
she after the first, " could not have heard of your deeds with 
more affection ; nor could she be more rejoiced at your per- 
sonal escape from all the dangers of that glorious day; " and 
again, after the Nile, " Sir Peter and I have ever regarded 
you as a son." The letter following the victory at Copen- 
hagen has not been published ; but Nelson, whose heart was 
never reluctant to gratitude nor to own obligation, wrote in 
reply : "Believe me when I say that I am as sensible as ever 
that I owe my present position in life to your and good Sir 

2 



18 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Peter's partiality for me, and friendly remembrance of Maurice 
Suckling." 

This last allusion indicates some disinterestedness in Par- 
ker's patronage, and its vital importance to Nelson at that 
time. Captain Suckling had died in July, 1778, and with him 
departed the only powerful support upon which the young 
lieutenant could then count, apart from his own merits and 
the friends obtained by them. There was in those days an 
immense difference in prospects between the nephew of the 
Comptroller of the Navy and a man unknown at headquar- 
ters. By what leading principles, if any, Sir Peter Parker was 
guided in the distribution of his favors, can scarcely now be 
ascertained ; but that he brought rapidly forward two men of 
such great yet widely different merit as Nelson and Colling- 
wood, is a proof that his judgment was sound and the station 
one where vacancies were frequent. Colliugwood, who was 
then a lieutenant on board a sloop-of-war, went to the 
" Lowestott'e" in Nelson's place. When the latter, in Decem- 
ber, 1778, was made commander into the brig "Badger," the 
other was transferred to the vacant room in the '' Bristol ; " 
and when Nelson, on the 11th of June, 1779, became post-captain 
in the " Hinchinbrook " frigate, Colliugwood again followed 
him as commander of the " Badger." Finally, when through 
a death vacancy a better frigate offered for Nelson, Colliug- 
wood also was posted into the " Hinchinbrook ; " this ship 
thus having the singular distinction of conferring the highest 
rank obtainable by selection, and so fixing the final position of 
the two life-long friends who led the columns at Trafalgar, the 
crowning achievement of the British Navy as well as of their 
own illustrious careers. The coincidence at the earlier date 
may have been partly factitious, due to a fad of the com- 
mander-in-chief ; but it assiimes a different and very impres- 
sive aspect viewed in the light of their later close association, 
especially when it is recalled that Colliugwood also succeeded, 
upon Nelson's death, to the Mediterranean command, and Avas 
there worn out, as his predecessor fell, in the discharge of his 
duty upon that important station, which thus proved fatal to 
them both. Few historic parallels are so complete. Sir Peter 
Parker, living until 1811, survived both his illustrious juniors, 
and at the age of eighty-two followed Nelson's coffin, as chief 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 19 

mourner at the imposing obsequies, where the nation, from the 
highest to the lowest, mingled the exultation of triumph with 
weeping for the loss of its best-beloved. 

Of Nelson's exterior at this time, his early biographers have 
secured an account which, besides its value as a portrait, pos- 
sesses the further interest of mentioning explicitly that charm 
of manner which was one of his best birth-gifts, reflecting, as it 
did, the generous aud kindly temper of his heart. "■ The personal 
appearance of Captain Nelson at this period of his life, owing 
to his delicate health and diminutive figure, was far from ex- 
pressing the greatness of his intellectual powers. From his 
earliest years, like Cleomenes, the hero of Sparta, he had been 
enamoured of glory, and had possessed a greatness of mind. 
Nelson preserved, also, a similar temperance and simplicity of 
manners. Nature, as Plutarch adds of the noble Spartan, had 
given a spur to his mind which rendered him impetuous in the 
pursuit of whatever he deemed honourable. The demeanour 
of this extraordinary young man was entirely the demeanour 
of a British seaman ; when the energies of his mind were not 
called forth by some object of duty, or professional interest, 
he seemed to retire within himself, and to care but little for 
the refined courtesies of polished life." No saving sense of 
humor seems to have suggested that the profane might here 
ask, '' Is this the British seaman ? " " In his dress he had all 
the cleanliness of an Englishman, though his manner of wear- 
ing it gave him an air of negligence ; and yet his general ad- 
dress and conversation, when he wished to please, possessed a 
charm that was irresistible." ^ 

In June, 1779, when posted into the " Hinchinbrook," Nel- 
son wanted still three months of being twenty-one. By the 
custom of the British Navy, then and now, promotions from 
the grade of Captain to that of Admiral are made by seniority 
only. Once a captain, therefore, a man's future was assured, 
so far as concerned the possibility of juniors passing over his 
head, — neither favor nor merit could procure that ; his rank 
relatively to others was finally fixed. The practical difficulty 
of getting at a captain of conspicuous ability, to make of him 
a fiag-officer, was met by one of those clumsy yet adequate 
expedients by which the practical English mind contrives to 
1 Clarke aud M'Arthur, vol. i. p. 31. 



20 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

reconcile respect for precedent with the demands of emer- 
gency. There being then no legal limit to the number of 
admii-als, a promotion was in such case made of all captains 
down to and including the one wanted ; and Lord St. Vincent, 
one of the most thorough-going of naval statesmen, is credited 
with the declara,tion that he would promote a hundred down 
the list of captains, if necessary, to reach the one .demanded 
by the needs of the country. Even with this rough-riding 
over obstacles, — for the other officers promoted, however 
useful in their former grade, not being wanted as admirals, 
remained perforce unemployed, — the advantage of reaching 
post-rank betimes is evident enough ; and to this chiefly Nel- 
son referred in acknowledging his permanent indebtedness to 
Sir Peter Parker. With this early start, every artificial im- 
pediment was cleared from his path ; his extraordinary ability 
was able to assert itself, and could be given due opportunity, 
without a too violent straining of service methods. He had, 
indeed, to wait eighteen years for his flag-rank ; but even so, 
he obtained it while still in the very prime of his energies, 
before he was thirty-nine, — a good fortune equalled by none 
of his most distinguished contemporaries.^ 

A somewhat singular feature of this early promotion of 
Nelson is that it was accorded without the claim of service in 
actual battle, — a circumstance that seems yet more remark- 
able when contrasted with the stormy and incessant warfare of 
his later career. While he was thus striding ahead, his equals 
in years, Saumarez and Pellew, were fighting their way up step 
by step, gaining each as the reward of a distinct meritorious 
action, only to find themselves outstripped by one who had 
scarcely seen a gun fired in anger. The result was mainly due 
to the nature of the station, where sickness made vacancies 
more rapidly than the deadliest engagement. But while this 
is true, and must be taken into the account, it was character- 
istic of Nelson that his value transpired through the simplest 
intercourse, and amid the commonplace incidents of service. 
Locker and Parker each in turn felt this. A little later, while 
he and Collingwood were still unknown captains, the latter, 
usually measured and formal in his language, wrote to him in 

1 Collingwood was nearly fifty when he got his flag. Howe was forty-five, 
St. Vincent fifty-three, Saumarez forty-four, JExmonth (Pellew) forty-eight. 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 21 

these singularly strong words : " My regard for you, my dear 
Nelson, my respect and veneration for your character, I hope 
and believe, will never lessen." So, some years afterwards, 
but before lie became renowned or had wrought his more bril- 
liant achievements, an envious brother captain said to him, 
" You did just as you pleased in Lord Hood's time, the same 
in Admiral Hotham's, and now again with Sir John Jervis ; it 
makes no difference to you who is Commander-in-chief." This 
power of winning confidence and inspiring attachment was one 
of the strongest elements in Nelson's success, alike as a sub- 
ordinate and when himself in chief command. 

With his mind ever fixed upon glory, or rather upon honor, 
— the word he himself most often used, and which more accu- 
rately expresses his desire for fame ; honor, which is to glory 
what character is to reputation, — the same hard fortune per- 
sisted in denying to him, during the War of the American 
Revolution, the opportunities for distinction which he so 
ardently coveted. In the " Badger " and in the " Hinchiu' 
brook," during the year 1779, his service was confined to 
routine cruising about Jamaica and along the Mosquito coast 
of Central America. A gleam of better things for a moment 
shone upon him in August of that year, when the French fleet, 
under Count D'Estaing, appeared in Haiti, numbering twenty- 
two ships-of-the-line, with transports reported to be carrying 
twenty thousand troops. All Jamaica was in an uproar of ap- 
prehension, believing an attack upon the island to be immi- 
nent ; for its conquest was known to be one of the great objects 
of the enemy. Nelson was at the time living on shore, the 
" Hinchinbrook " seemingly ^ not having returned to the port 
since his appointment to her, and he eagerly accepted the duty 
of commanding the land batteries. The odds were great, — 
" You must not be surprised to hear of my learning to speak 
French," he wrote, laughingly, to Locker in England, — but if 
so, the greater the honor attendant, whether upon success or 
defeat. D'Estaing, however, passed on to America to encoun- 
ter disaster at Savannah, and Nelson's hopes were again 
disappointed. 

In January, 1780, an opportunity for service offered, which 

1 This appears certain from his letters of July 28 and August 12, which 
explicitly mention that ship's absence. 



22 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ended in no conspicuous or permanent result, but nevertheless 
conferred distinction uj)on one who, to use his own expression, 
was determined to climb to the top of the tree, and to neglect 
no chance, however slight, that could help him on. War with 
Spain had then been about seven months declared, and the 
British governor of Jamaica had sagaciously determined to 
master Lake Nicaragua, and the course of the river San Juan, 
its outlet to the Caribbean Sea. The object of the attempt 
was twofold, both military and commercial. The route was 
recognized then, as it is now, as one of the most important, if 
not the most important, of those affording easy transit from 
the Pacific to the Atlantic by way of the Isthmus. To a 
nation of the mercantile aptitudes of Great Britain, such a 
natural highway was necessarily an object of desire. In her 
hands it would not only draw to itself the wealth, of the sur- 
rounding regions, but would likewise promote the develop- 
ment of her trade, both north and south, along the eastern 
and western coasts of the two Americas. But the pecuniary 
gain was not all. The military tenure of this short and nar- 
row strip, supported at either end, upon the Pacific and the 
Atlantic, by naval detachments, all the more easily to be main- 
tained there by the use of the belt itself, would effectually sever 
the northern and southern colonies of Spain, both by actual in- 
terposition, and by depriving them of one of their most vital 
lines of intercommunication. To seek control of so valuable 
and central a link in a great network of maritime interests 
was as natural and inevitable to Great Britain a century ago, 
as it now is to try to dominate the Mediterranean and the Suez 
Canal, which fulfil a like function to her Eastern possessions 
and Eastern commerce. 

Preoccupied, however, with numerous and more pressing 
cares in many quarters of the world, and overweighted in a 
universal struggle with outnumbering foes. Great Britain 
could spare but scanty forces to her West India Islands, and 
from them Governor Dalling could muster but five hundred 
men for his Nicaraguan undertaking. Nelson was directed to 
convoy these with the " Hinchinbrook " to the mouth of the 
San Juan del Norte, where was the port now commonly called 
Greytown, in those days a fine and spacious harbor. There 
his charge ended ; but his mental constitution never allowed 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 23 

him to look upon a military task as well done- while anything 
remained to do. In the spirit of his famous saying, fifteen 
years later, "Were ten ships out of eleven taken, I would 
never call it well done if the eleventh escaped, if able to get 
at her," he determined to go with the troops. With his 
temperament it was impossible to turn his back upon the 
little body of soldiers, whose toilsome advance up the tropical 
stream might be aided and hastened by his ready seamen. 

The first objective of the expedition was Fort San Juan, a 
powerful work controlling the river of the same name, and 
thereby the only natural water transit between the sea and 
Lake Nicaragua. Upon the possession of this, as a position 
of vantage and a safe depot for supplies aud reinforcements, 
Calling based his hopes of future advance, both west and 
south. Nelson took with him forty-seven seamen and ma- 
rines from his ship's company; the former, aided by some 
Indians, doing most of the labor of forcing the boats against 
the current, through shoal and tortuous channels, under his 
own constant supervision and encouragement. A small out- 
post that withstood their progress was by him intrepidly 
stormed, sword in hand, by sudden assault ; and upon reach- 
ing Fort San Juan he urgently recommended the same sum- 
mary method to the officer commanding the troops. The 
latter, however, was not one of the men who recognize the 
necessity for exceptional action. Eegular approaches, though 
the slower, were the surer way of reducing a fortified place, 
and entailed less bloodshed. Professional rule commonly 
demanded them, and to professional rule he submitted. 
Nelson argued that through delays, which, however incurred, 
were now past discussion, the expedition had reached its 
destination in April, at the end of the healthy, dry season, 
instead of shortly'' after its beginning, in January. Conse- 
quently, owing to the fall of the water, much additional 
trouble had been experienced in the advance, the men were 
proportionately weakened by toil and exposure, and the wet 
months, with their dire train of tropical diseases, were at 
hand. Therefore, though more might fall by the enemy's 
weapons in a direct attack, the ultimate loss would be less 
than by the protracted and sickly labors of the spade ; while 
with San Juan subdued, the force could receive all the care 



24 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

possible in such a climate, and under the best conditions await 
the return of good weather for further progress. 

In military enterprises there will frequently arise the ques- 
tion, Is time or life in this case of the greater value ? Those 
regularly ordered and careful procedures which most econo- 
mize the blood of the soldier may, by their inevitable delays, 
seriously imperil the objects of the campaign as a whole ; or 
they may even, while less sanguinary, entail indirectly a 
greater loss of men than do prompter measures. In such 
doubtful matters Nelson's judgment was usually sound ; and 
his instinct, which ever inclined to instant and vigorous 
action, was commonly by itself alone an accurate guide, in 
a profession whose prizes are bestowed upon quick resolve 
more often than upon deliberate consultation. The same in- 
tuition that in his prime dictated his instant, unhesitating 
onslaught at the Nile, depriving the French of all opportunity 
for further preparation, — that caused him in the maturity of 
his renown, before Copenhagen, to write, " every hour's delay 
makes the enemy stronger ; we shall never be so good a match 
for them as at this moment," — that induced him at Trafalgar 
to modify his deliberately prepared plan in favor of one vastly 
more hazardous, but which seized and held the otherwise fleet- 
ing chance, — led him here also at San Juan, unknown, and 
scarcely more than a boy, to press the policy of immediate 
attack. 

The decision was not in his hands, and he was overruled ; 
whereupon, with his usual readiness to do his utmost, he 
accepted the course he disapproved, and, without nursing a 
grievance, became at once active in erecting batteries and 
serving the guns. " When unfortunate contentions," says one 
dispassionate narrator, '-had slackened the ardour for public 
service. Captain Nelson did not suffer any narrow spirit to 
influence his conduct. He did more than his duty : where 
anything was to be done, he saw no difficulties." Great as 
his merits were, he was never insensible to them ; and, in the 
sketch of his career, furnished by him to his chief biographers, 
he records his exploits with naive self-satisfaction, resembling 
the sententious tablets of Eastern conquerors : " I boarded, if 
I may be allowed the expression, an outpost of the enemy, 
situated on an island in the river; I made batteries, and 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 25 

afterwards fought them, and was a principal cause of our 
success." But this simple, almost childlike, delight in his 
own performances, which continually crops out in his corre- 
spondence, did not exaggerate their deserts. Major Poison, 
commanding the land forces, wrote to Governor Dalling : "I 
want words to express the obligations I owe to Captain 
Nelson. He was the first on every service, whether by day 
or night. There was not a gun fired but was pointed by him, 
or by Captain Despard, Chief Engineer." Calling, after some 
delay, wrote in the same sense to the Minister of War in Lon- 
don, warmly recommending Nelson to the notice of the home 
Government. 

While the siege was in progress, Nelson received word of 
his appointment to a better ship, the " Janus," of forty-four 
guns, and it became necessary for him to join her. He left 
Fort San Juan only the day before it surrendered, and re- 
turned to Jamaica ; but his health now gave way wholly, and 
his command of the " Janus," for the most part merely nomi- 
nal, soon came to an end altogether. Dalling had truly said, 
*' Captain Nelson's constitution is rather too delicate for ser- 
vice in this northern ocean." ^ Before starting on ihe expe- 
dition, he had himself written to his friend Locker : " If my 
health is not much better than it is at present, I shall cer- 
tainly come home after this trip, as all the doctors are against 
my staying so long in this country. You know my old com- 
plaint in my breast : it is turned out to be the gout got there. 
I have twice been given over since you left this country with 
that cursed disorder, the gout." In such weakness he lived 
and worked through a month of a short campaign, in which, 
of the " Hinchinbrook's " crew of two hundred, one hundred 
and forty-five were buried in his time or that of his successor, 
Collingwood, — a mortality which he justly cites as a further 
proof of the necessity for expedition in such climates. But, 
though he survived, he escaped by the skin of his teeth. 
Worn out by dysentery and fatigue, he was carried ashore in 
his cot, and soon after taken to Sir Peter Parker's house, 
where Lady Parker herself nursed him through. Her kind- 

1 Tlie Caiibbean was formerly thus styled in contradistinction to tlie South 
Sea, the Pacific, which was so called because its first discoverers saw it to the 
south from the Isthmus, 



26 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ness to him and his own debility are touchingly shown by a 
note written from the mountains, where he was carried in 
his convalescence: "Oh, Mr. Ross, what would I give to be 
at Port Royal! Lady Parker not here, and the servants let- 
ting me lay as if a log, and take no notice." By September, 
1780, it was apparent that perfect restoration, without change 
of climate, was impossible, and in the autumn, having been 
somewhat over three years on the station, he sailed for home 
in the " Lion," of sixty-four guns. Captain Cornwallis,^ to 
whose careful attention, as formerly to that of Captain Pigot, 
he gratefully attributed his life. The expedition with which 
he had been associated ended in failure, for although a part 
of the force pushed on to Lake Nicaragua, sickness compelled 
the abandonment of the conquests, which were repossessed by 
the Spaniards. 

Arriving in England, Nelson went to Bath, and there passed 
through a period of extreme suffering and tedious recovery. 
" I have been so ill since I have been here," says one of his 
letters, " that I was obliged to be carried to and from bed, 
with the most excruciating tortures." Exact dates are want- 
ing; butjie seems to have been under treatment near three 
months, when, on the 28th of January, 1781, he wrote to 
Locker, in his often uncouth style : " Although I have not 
quite recovered the use of my limbs, yet my inside is a new 
man ; " and again, three weeks later, " I have now the perfect 
use of all my limbs, except my left arm, which I can hardly tell 
what is the matter with it. From the shoulder to my fingers' 
ends are as if half dead." He remained in Bath until the 
middle of March, latterly more for the mild climate than be- 
cause feeling the necessity of prosecuting his cure; yet that 
his health was far from securely re-established is evident, for 
a severe relapse followed his return to London. On the 7th 
of May, 1781, he writes to his brother : " You will say, why 
does not he come into Norfolk ? I will tell you : I have en- 
tirely lost the use of my left arm, and very near of my left 
leg and thigh." In estimating Nelson's heroism, the sickly 

1 Comwallis was an officer of marked gallantry and conduct, who distin- 
guished himself on several occasions, as captain, during the War of 1778, and 
as admiral during the wars of the French Revolution. He was brother to 
Jjord Comwallis, who surrendered at Yorktown, in 1781, 



THE FIRST TWENTY-nVE YEARS 27 

fragility of his bodily frame must be kept in memory ; not to 
excuse shortcomings of nerve or enterprise, for there were 
none, but to exalt duly the extraordinary mental energy 
which rather mocked at difficulties than triumphed over them. 
While yet an invalid he had again applied for employment, 
and, as the war was still raging, was appointed in August, 
1781, to the " Albemarle," a small frigate of twenty-eight 
guns. He was pleased with the ship, the first commissioned 
l3y himself at home, Avith a long cruise in prospect; and, to- 
gether with his expressions of content with her, there appears 
that manifestation of complete satisfaction with his officers 
and crew, with those surrounding him as subordinates, that 
so singularly characterized his habit of mind. "I have an 
exceeding good ship's company. Not a man or officer in 
her I would wish to change. ... I am perfectly satisfied 
with both officers and ship's company." Down to the month 
before Trafalgar, when, to the bidding of the First Lord of 
the Admiralty to choose his own officers, he replied, "Choose 
yourself, my lord ; the same spirit actuates the whole pro- 
fession, you cannot choose wrong," there is rarely, it might 
almost be said never, anything but praise for those beneath 
him. With the "Agamemnon," "We are all well; indeed, 
nobody can be ill with my ship's company, they are so fine a 
set." At the Nile, "I had the happiness to command a band 
of brothers ; therefore night was to my advantage. Each 
knew his duty, and I was sure each would feel for a French 
ship. My friends readily conceived my plan." His ships in 
the Mediterranean, in 1803, " are the best commanded and 
the very best manned " in the navy. So his frequent praise 
of others in his despatches and letters has none of the formal, 
perfunctory ring of an official paper ; it springs evidently 
from the warmest appreciation and admiration, is heartfelt, 
showing no deceptive exterior, but the true native fibre of 
the man, full of the charity which is kind and thinketh no 
evil. It was not always so toward those above him. Under 
the timid and dilatory action of Hotham and Hyde Parker, 
under the somewhat commonplace although exact and ener- 
getic movements of Lord Keith, he was restive^ and freely 
showed what he felt. On the other hand, around Hood and 
Jervis, who commanded his professional respect and esteem, 



28 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

he quickly threw the same halo of excellence, arising from 
his tendency to idealize, that colored the medium through 
which he invariably saw the men whom he himself com- 
manded. The disposition to invest those near to him with 
merits, which must in part at least have been imaginary, is 
a most noteworthy feature of his character, and goes far to 
explain the attraction he exerted over others, the enthusiasm 
which ever followed him, the greatness of his success, and 
also, unhappily, the otherwise almost inexplicable but en- 
during infatuation which enslaved his later years, and has 
left the most serious blot upon his memory. 

Though thus pleased with his surroundings, his own health 
continued indifferent. He excuses himself for delay in corre- 
spondence, because " so ill as to be scarce kept out of bed." 
In such a state, and for one whose frame had been racked and 
weakened by three years spent in the damp heat of the trop- 
ics, a winter's trip to the Baltic was hardly the best prescrip- 
tion; but thither the " Albemarle " was sent, — "it would 
almost be supposed," he wrote, " to try my constitution." He 
was away on this cruise from October to December, 1781, 
reaching Yarmouth on the 17th of the latter month, with a 
large convoy of a hundred and ten sail of merchant-ships, all 
that then remained of two hundred and sixty that had started 
from Elsinore on the 8th, " They behaved, as all convoys 
that ever I saw did, shamefully ill ; parting company every 
day." After being several days wind-bound in Yarmouth 
Roads, he arrived in the Downs on the first day of 1782. The 
bitter cold of the North had pierced him almost as keenly as 
it did twenty years later in the Copenhagen expedition. "I 
believe the Doctor has saved my life since I saw you," he 
wrote to his brother. The ship was then ordered to Ports- 
mouth to take in eight months' pi-ovisions, — a sure indication 
that she was intended for a distant voyage. Kelson himself 
surmised that she would join the squadron of Sir Eichard 
Bickerton, then fitting out to reinforce the fleet in the East 
Indies. Had this happened, he would have been on hand to 
hear much and perchance see something of one of his own 
professional forerunners, the great French Admiral Suffren, as 
well as of the latter's doughty antagonist. Sir Edward Hughes ; 
for Bickerton arrived in time to take part in the last of the 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 29 

five pitched battles between those two hard fighters. Un- 
luckily, a severe accident had befallen the "Albemarle," — a 
large East Indiaman having dragged down upon her during 
a heavy gale in the Downs. The injuries received by this 
collision were so extensive that the ship was under repairs 
at Portsmouth for six weeks, during which time Bickerton 
sailed. 

While thus detained in one of the principal dockyards and 
naval stations of the kingdom, another large detachment, be- 
longing to the Channel fleet, assembled before Nelson's eyes. 
It comprised twelve sail-of-the-line, under Admiral Barring- 
ton ; and among these was the " Foudroyaut," the most famous 
ship of her time, then commanded by Captain John Jervis, 
with whom, as the Earl of St. Vincent, Nelson was afterwards 
closely associated ; but the young frigate captain did not now 
come in contact with his stately superior, who in later years 
so highly valued and loved him. It was for him still the day 
of small things. Though thus thrown in the midst of tlie din 
and bustle of extensive naval preparations, he had not the 
fortune to be directly connected with them ; and consequently 
no occasion arose for becoming known to admirals who could 
recognize his worth, and give him the opportunities without 
which distinction cannot be achieved. It is, however, a sig- 
nificant and instructive fact that, while thus persistently dis- 
sociated from the great operations then in progress, and 
employed wholly in detached service. Nelson's natural genius 
for war asserted itself, controlling the direction of his thoughts 
and interests, and fixing them to that broad field of his profes- 
sion from which he was as yet debarred. " The height of his 
ambition," an acquaintance of this period tells us, " was to 
command a line-of-battle ship ; as for prize money," for which 
frigates offered the best chances, " it never entered his 
thoughts." A few months later, while still in the " Albe- 
marle," it was said of him by Lord Hood, the most original 
tactician of the day, that he knew as much about naval tactics 
as any officer in the fleet. When this high encomium was be- 
stowed, Nelson had barely passed his twenty-fourth birthday. 

Meanwhile the " Albemarle " was again ordered upon con- 
voy duty, this time to Quebec. This destination also was 
distasteful on account of the climate. " I want much to get 



80 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

off from this d cl voyage," he wrote. " Mr. Adair," an 

eminent London surgeon, who the year before had treated him 
for the paralysis of his limbs, " has told me that if I was sent 
to a cold damp climate it would make me worse than ever." 
He himself had scruples about applying for an exchange, and 
the efforts of some f rieuds who interfered proved useless. The 
" Albemarle " started with a convoy of thirty-odd vessels on 
the 10th of April, 1782 ; and after a short stop at Cork, an- 
chored at St. John's, Newfoundland, on May 27, whence she 
reached Quebec July 1. Three days later she again sailed on 
a cruise that lasted over two months, spent chiefly about 
Boston Bay and Cape Cod. During this time several enemy's 
vessels were taken or destroyed ; but, with the bad luck that 
so often followed Nelson in the matter of prize-money, none 
of the captures reached port, and the cruise was pecuniarily 
unprofitable. It afforded him, however, an opportunity for 
displaying conduct and gaining deserved reputation, which he 
valued more highly. On the 14th of August the sudden lifting 
of a fog showed the "Albemarle" within gunshot of a French 
squadron, of four ships-of-the-line and a frigate, that had just 
come out of Boston. A close chase followed, lasting nine or 
ten hours ; but ISTelson threw off the heavy ships by running 
among the shoals of George's Bank, which he ventured to do, 
trusting to the cool head and aptitude for pilotage acquired in 
earlier life. The frigate followed warily, watching for a 
chance to strike at advantage ; but when the ships-of-the-line 
had been dropped far enough to be unable to help their con- 
sort, the British vessel hove-to ^ in defiance, and the enemy 
fell back upon his supports. 

Shortly after this escape, so many of the ship's company 
fell ill with scurvy that Nelson decided to go back to Quebec, 
where he arrived on the 17th of September. " For eight 
weeks," he wrote, " myself and all the officers lived upon salt 
beef ; nor had the ship's company had a fresh meal since the 
7th of April." The fears for his health that he had expressed 
before sailing from England had happily proved groundless, 
and a month's stay in port which now followed, at the most 
delightful and invigorating of the American seasons, wrought 
wonders for him. His letters to Locker state that the voyage 
1 That is, stopped. 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 31 

agreed with liim better than he had expected ; while from the 
St. Lawrence he wrote to his father, " Health, that greatest of 
blessings, is what I never truly enjoyed until I saw Fair 
Canada. The change it has wrought, I am convinced, is truly 
wonderful." This happy result had been due, in part at 
least, to surroundings that told favorably upon his sensitive 
nervous system, and not to the bracing climate alone. He had 
been actively occupied afloat, and had fallen desperately in love 
with a fair Canadian, around whom his ardent imagination 
threw that glamour of exaggerated charm in which he saw all 
who were dear to him, except his wife. Her he seems from 
the first to have looked upon with affection indeed, but with- 
out rapture or illusion. The Canadian affair came near ending 
in an imprudent offer, from which he was with difficulty de- 
terred by a cool-headed friend. The story runs that, the ship 
being ordered to ISTew York and ready for sea, he had bidden 
her good-bye and gone on board, expecting to sail next day ; 
but that, unable to bear the approaching separation, he re- 
turned to the city, and was on his way to the lady's home 
when his friend met him. 

Tearing himself away from his mistress by a violent effort. 
Nelson, on the 20th of October, sailed for New York. Arriv- 
ing on the 13th of November, he found there a large part of 
the West India fleet, under Lord Hood, who had been second 
in command to Rodney on the occasion of the latter's cele- 
brated victory over De Grasse in the previous April. Eodney 
had since then been recalled to England, while Hood had gone 
to Boston to look after a division of the beaten French fleet, 
Avhich was there refitting. He was now on his return to the 
islands, where the enemy was expected to make a vigorous 
aggressive campaign the following spring. Extensive prepa- 
rations were in fact on foot for the reduction of Jamaica, fi-us- 
trated six months before by De Grasse's mishap. Nelson 
thus found himself again in tantalizing contact Avith the stir- 
ring circumstance that preludes hostilities, in which he him- 
self had little hope to share; for the "Albemarle" belonged 
to the North American station, where all active naval opera- 
tions had ceased with the surrender of Cornwallis the year 
before. He went, therefore, to Hood, and begged to be trans- 
ferred to his squadron. In vain did Admiral Digby, his own 



32 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

comraancler-in-ehief, tell him that he was on a good station for 
prize-money. " Yes," he replied, " but the West Indies is the 
station for honour." 

Digby was reluctant to part with a frigate, as all admirals 
were ; but Hood, either from an intuitive faculty for judging 
men, or from his conversations with Nelson eliciting the 
latter's singular knowledge of the higher part of his profes- 
sion, wished to push an officer of so much promise, and suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the transfer of the "Albemarle" to his 
squadron. " I am a candidate with Lord Hood for a line-of- 
battle ship," wrote Nelson to Locker ; " he has honoured me 
highly, by a letter, for wishing to go off this station to a 
station of service, and has promised me his friendship." A 
few months later he wrote again: "My situation in Lord 
Hood's fleet must be in the highest degree flattering to any 
young man. He treats me as if I were his son, and will, I 
am convinced, give me anything I can ask of him." This 
was really the beginning, the outstart, of Nelson's great 
career; for Hood's interest in him, then aroused, and deep- 
ened by experience to the utmost confidence and appreciation, 
made itself felt the instant the French Revolutionary War 
began. Nelson then came at once under his orders, went 
with him to the Mediterranean, and there speedily made his 
mark, being transferred from admiral to admiral with ever- 
growing tokens of reliance. Despite the lapse of time, and 
the long interval of peace, it is no exaggeration to say that 
there is a direct connection of cause and effect between his 
transfer to Hood's fleet, in the harbor of New York, and the 
battle of Cape St. Vincent, in 1797, when he emerged from 
merely professional distinction to national renown, standing 
head and shoulders above all competitors. In the four days 
that followed his arrival in New York, Nelson took the tide 
at the flood, and was borne on to fortune. Yet in this, as in 
many other instant and happy decisions, we may not see the 
mere casting of a die, the chance result of an irreflective im- 
pulse. The determination to change into Hood's squadron, 
with its powerful, far-reaching effect upon his future, was in 
necessary logical sequence to Nelson's whole habit of thought, 
and wish, and previous preparation. He was swept into 
the current that carried him on to fame by the irresistible 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIV^E YEARS 83 

tendency of his own conscious will and cherished purpose. 
Opportunity flitted by ; he was ready, and grasped it. 

At this turning-point the commendable diligence of his 
principal biographers has again secured for us a striking de- 
scription of the young captain's personal appearance, and of 
the impression produced by his manner upon an interested 
acquaintance, who afterwards became a warm friend and ad- 
mirer as well as a frequent correspondent. The narrator — 
then Prince "William Henr}^, afterwards King William IV. 
— gave the following account, apparently at some period 
between 1805, when Nelson -fell, and 1809, when the first 
edition of Clarke and M'Arthur's Life appeared. "I was 
then a midshipman on board the Barfleur," Lord Hood's flag- 
ship, "lying in the Narrows off Staten Island, and had the 
watch on deck, when Captain Nelson, of the Albemarle, came 
in his barge alongside, who apjjeared to be the merest boy of 
a captain I ever beheld ; and his dress was worthy of atten- 
tion. He had on a full-laced uniform ; his lank unpowdered 
hair was tied in a stiff Hessian tail, of an extraordinary 
length; the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat added to the 
general quaintness of his figure, and produced an appearance 
which particularly attracted my notice ; for I had never seen 
anything like it before, nor could I imagine who he was, nor 
what he came about. My doubts were, however, removed 
when Lord Hood introduced me to him. There was some- 
thing irresistibly pleasing in his address and conversation; 
and an enthusiasm, when speaking on professional subjects, 
that showed he was no common being." The Countess of 
Minto, in her Life of Lord Minto, speaks of Nelson's "shock 
head " at the time (1794) when he was a frequent visitor at 
the house of Minto, then Sir Gilbert Elliott, and Viceroy of 
Corsica; a trivial detail, but confirmatory, so far, of the 
picture drawn by the prince. The latter continued : " Nelson, 
after this, went with us to the AVest Indies, and served under 
Lord Hood's flag during his indefatigable cruise off Cape 
Francois. ... I found him warmly attached to my father 
[King George III.], and singularly humane. He had the 
honour of the King's service and the independence of the 
British navy particularly at heart; and his mind glowed with 
this idea as much when he was simply captain of the Albe- 

3 



34 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

mavle, and had obtained none of the honours of his Country, 
as when he was afterwards decorated with so much well- 
earned distinction." 

The war of 1778 was now fast drawing to its close; the 
preliminaries of peace being signed in January, 1783, though 
not ratified till the following September. Hood cruised oft' 
Cap FrauQois, a naval station of the French at the west end 
of Haiti, to intercept the fleet from Boston, which was under- 
stood to be on its way to the Caribbean; but the enemy, 
learning his whereabouts, went through the Mona Passage, 
east of the island, thus avoiding a meeting, and was next 
heard of by the British as being off Cura9ao, far to the south- 
ward. Nelson, therefore, had no opportunity to show his 
prowess in battle ; and as only three letters remain covering 
this uneventful period, little is known of his movements, 
except that he made an abortive attempt to recapture Turk's 
Island from the French with a small force of ships he was 
able to gather at short notice. An interesting indication of 
the spirit which animated him transpires in the first of the 
three letters mentioned. He had received unexpected orders 
to wait in New York after Hood's leaving. " I was to have 
sailed with the fleet this day, but for some private reasons, 
when my ship was under sail from New York to join Lord 
Hood, at Sandy Hook, I was sent for on shore, and told I was 
to be kept forty-eight hours after the sailing of the fleet. It 
is much to my private advantage," allowing more latitude for 
picking up prizes, without having to share with the other 
ships, "but I had much rather have sailed with the fleet." 
"Money," he continues, "is the great object here," on the 
North American Station, "nothing else is attended to," — a 
motive of action which he always rejected with disdain, 
although by no means insensible to the value of money, nor 
ever thoroughly at his ease in the matter of income, owing 
largely to the lavish liberality with which he responded to 
the calls upon his generosity or benevolence. A year later 
he wrote in the same strain : " I have closed the war without 
a fortune ; but I trust, and, from the attention that has been 
paid to me, believe, that there is not a speck in my character. 
True honour, I hope, predominates in my mind far above 
riches." 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS So 

Wht'u news of the peace reached the West Indies, Hood 
was ordered to return with his fleet to England. Nelson 
went home at the same time, being directed tirst to accom- 
pany Prince William Henry iii a visit to Havana, The 
"Albemarle" reached Spithead on the 25th of June, 1783, 
and was paid otf a week later, her captain going on half-pay 
until the following April. The cruise of nearly two years' 
duration closed with this characteristic comment: "Not au 
officer has been changed, except the second lieutenant, since 
the Albemarle was commissioned ; therefore, it is needless 
to say, I am happy in my ship's company." And again he 
writes: "My ship was paid off last week, and in such a 
manner that must flatter any officer, in particular in these 
turbulent times. Tlie whole ship's com])any offered, if I 
could get a ship, to enter for her immediately." Nelson was 
keenly alive to the impolicy and injury to the service in- 
volved in the frequent changes of officers and men from ship 
to ship. " The disgust of the seamen to the Navy," he wrote 
immediately after leaving the " Albemarle," " is all owing to 
the infernal plan of turning them over from ship to ship, so 
that men cannot be attached to their officers, or the officers 
care twopence about them." This element of personal attach- 
ment is never left out of calculation safely. 

Nelson was now nearly twenty-five. In direct achievement 
he had accomplished little, and to most he was unknown ; but 
he did not deceive himself in believing that his reputation 
was established, and his promise, as a capable man of action, 
understood by those who knew him, and especially by the 
brilliant admiral under whom he had last served. Within a 
Aveek of his release from the ship Hood carried him to Court, 
and presented him to the King, — an evident proof of his 
approbation ; and Nelson notes that the sovereign was exceed- 
ingly attentive. The next few months were spent in Lon- 
don, or at his old home in Norfolk, to which and to his 
family he Avas always fondly attached. Toward the end of 
October he obtained a leave of absence, in order to visit 
France and acquire the French language. His impressions of 
that country, as far as he Avent, — from Calais to St. Omer, 
— are given in lively enough style in a feAv letters ; but they 
differ little from Avhat might be expected from any very 



36 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

young man deeply tinged with insular prejudice. "I hate 
their country and their manners," he wrote, soon after his 
return ; and his biographers were quite right in saying that 
he had been brought up in the old anti-Gallican school, with 
prejudices not to be eradicated by a flying visit. He duly 
records his disgust with two British naval captains, one of 
whom was afterwards among his most valued and valuable 
friends, for wearing epaulettes, at that time confined to the 
French service. ''I hold them a little clieap,^' he said, "for 
putting on any part of a Frenchman's uniform." 

It is more interesting to notice that his impressionable 
fancy was again taken by an attractive young Englishwoman, 
the daughter of a clergyman named Andrews, living at St. 
Omer. "Two very beautiful young ladies," he Avrites to 
Locker and to his brother; "I must take care of my heart, I 
assure you." " My heart is quite secured against the French 
beauties; I almost wish I could saj'' as much for an English 
young lady, the daughter of a clergyman, with whom I am 
just going to dine, and spend the day. She has such accom- 
plishments that, had I a million of money, I am sure I should 
at this moment make her an offer of them." "The most 
accomplished woman my eyes ever beheld," he repeats, a 
month later. The sentimental raptures of a .young man about 
a handsome girl have in themselves too much of the common- 
place to justify mention. What is remarkable, and suggests 
an explanation of the deplorable vagary of his later years, is 
that his attachment to his wife, even in the days of court- 
ship, elicited no such extravagance of admiration as that into 
which he freely lapses in his earlier fancies, and yet more in 
his last absorbing passion. Eespect and tenderness for her 
he certainly felt and expressed; but there is no indication 
that she ever enkindled his ardent imagination, or filled for 
him the place of an ideal, which his mental constitution 
imperatively demanded as an object of worship. The present 
attachment went so far with him that he wrote to his uncle 
William Suckling, asking for an allowance to enable him to 
marry. " If nothing can be done for me," said he, gloomily, 
"I know what I have to trust to. Life is not worth preserv- 
ing without happiness; and I care not where I may linger 
out a miseral)le existence. I am prepared to hear your refusal, 



THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 37 

and have fixed my resolution if tliat should happen. ... I 
pray you may never know the pangs which at this instant 
tear my heart." If, as is said by the gentleman into whose 
hands this letter passed, Suckling consented to help him, as 
he certainly did at the time of his actual marriage, it seems 
probable that the lady refused him. 



CPIAPTER II. 

The Cruise of the "Boreas." — Controversy over the Enforce- 
ment OF THE Navigation Act. — Return to liNOLAND. — IIetiki;- 

MENT until the OUTBREAK OF THE FkENCH REVOLUTION. — Al'- 
POINTED TO COMMAND THE "AgAMEMNON," 6i. 

1784-1793. Age, 26-34. 

WHATEVER the cause, Nelson's visit to France ended 
prematurely and abruptly. Early in Januaiy, 1784, 
after an absence of two mouths, he went back to England, 
announcing to his friends that his coming was only tem- 
porary, partly on business, partly for ti-eatment; for his 
delicate health again occasioned him anxiety. " The frost, 
thank God, is broke," he wrote ; " cold weather is death to 
me." But even while speaking confidently of his speedy 
return to the Continent, he dropped a hint that he was dis- 
posed to resume the active pursuit of his profession, although 
on leaving the " Albemarle," six months before, he had said 
that lie could not afford to live afloat, in peace times, in the 
style then prevalent. " My stay in England will be but very 
short, without the First Lord in the Admiralty thinks proper 
to employ me. I shall offer my services." He did see Lord 
Howe, at that time First Lord, asking him for a ship; and 
he renewed his cordial relations with Hood, then living in 
London. On the 18th of March Howe appointed him to the 
command of the frigate " Boreas." Occupation in peace, 
with a reduced establishment, was not easy to get, and his 
brother, an inveterate wirepuller, must needs know to whose 
favor Nelson owed it. ''You ask," replied the hero, "by 
what interest did I get a ship ? I answer, having served 
with credit was my recommendation to Lord Howe. Any- 
thing in reason that I can ask, I am sure of obtaining from 
his justice." The statement was no more than fair to Howe ; 
but in his knowledge of the merits of Nelson, whose claim 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 39 

lay rather iu evident promise than in conspicuous perform- 
ance, we can probably trace the friendly intervention of Lord 
Hood. 

Nelson's wish was that the " Boreas " should go to the East 
Indies. To this he inclined, apparently, because the station 
was to be under the command of Commodore Cornwallis, in 
whose ship he had returned from Jamaica as an invalid in 
1780, and to whom on that occasion he was indebted for the 
most friendly care. He was not long allowed to indulge this 
hope, for five days after receiving his appointment he wrote 
that the ship was bound to the Leeward Islands, and that he 
had been asked to take as passengers the wife and familj'' of 
the commander-in-chief. Sir Richard Hughes, who had already 
gone out. In a small vessel, for such the "Boreas" was, the 
request, which he could not well refuse, gave Nelson cause of 
reasonable discontent, entailing crowding and a large outlay 
of money. "I shall be pretty well filled with lumher," he 
wrote ; and later, on the voyage out, " I shall not be sorry to 
part with them, although they are very pleasant, good people; 
but they are an incredible expense." The incident, annoying 
though it was, was not without compensations. After arriving 
on the station, he soon became involved in a serious difference 
with Sir Richard Hughes ; and the latter, though a weak man 
and in the Avrong, might have acted more peremptorily, had 
he not laid himself under such obligations. On the other hand, 
Lady Hughes, many years later, shortly after Nelson's death, 
committed to writing some recollections of his personal traits 
and actions daring the passage, so characteristic, even though 
trivial, that we could ill have spared them. 

" I was too much affected when we met at Bath," wrote she 
to Mr. Matcham, Nelson's brother-in-law, " to say every par- 
ticular in which was always displayed the infinite cleverness 
and goodness of heart of our dearly beloved Hero. As a 
woman, I can only be a judge of those things that I could 
comprehend — such as his attention to the young gentlemen 
who had the happiness of being on his quarter-deck. It may 
reasonably be supposed that among the number of thirty, there 
must be timid as well as bold; the timid he never rebuked, 
but always wished to show them he desired nothing of them 
that he would not instantly do himself : and I have known him 



40 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

say, ' Well, Sir, I am going a race to the masthead, and beg I 
may meet you there.' No denial could be given to such a wish, 
and the poor fellow instantly began his march. His Lordship 
never took the least notice with what alacrity it was done, but 
when he met in the top, instantly began speaking in the most 
cheerful manner, and saying how much a person was to be 
pitied that could fancy there was any danger, or even anything 
disagreeable, in the attempt. After this excellent example, I 
have seen the timid youth lead another, and rehearse his cap- 
tain's words. In like manner, he every day went into the 
school-room, and saw them do their nautical business, and at 
twelve o'clock he was the first upon deck with his quadrant. 
No one there could be behindhand in their business when their 
captain set them so good an example. One other circumstance 
I must mention which will close the subject, which was the 
day we landed at Barbadoes. We were to dine at the Gover- 
nor's. Our dear captain said, ' You must permit me. Lady 
Hughes, to carry one of my aid-de-camps with me ; ' and when 
he presented him to the Governor, he said, ' Your Excellency 
must excuse me for bringing one of my midshipmen, as I make 
it a rule to introduce them to all the good company I can, as 
they have few to look up to besides myself during the time 
they are at sea.' This kindness and attention made the young 
people adore him ; and even his wishes, could they have been 
known, would have been instantly complied with." 

The charm and wisdom of such a bearing is patent ; but it 
was the natural character of the man that thus shone out, and 
no mere result of conscientious care. To the last, through all 
his ill-health, anxiety, and sufferings, the same genial sweet- 
ness of manner, the outcome of an unaffected, cordial good-will 
to all, was shown to those who came in contact with him. 
Captain Duff, who met him for the first time three weeks before 
Trafalgar, and who fell in the battle, wrote to his wife in almost 
the same words as Lady Hughes : " You ask me about Lord 
Nelson, and how I like him. I have already answered that 
question as every person must do that ever served under him. 
He is so good and pleasant a man, that we all wish to do what 
he likes, without any kind of orders. I have been myself very 
lucky with most of my admirals, but I really think the present 
the pleasantest I have met with." There do, it is true, occur 



THE CBUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 41 

in Nelson's letters occasional, though very rare, expressions of 
that passing annoyance with individuals which is inseparable 
from the close and long-continued contact of ship life. Thus, 
shortly before leaving the '' Boreas," he writes : " I begin to be 
very strict in my Ship. Whenever I may set off in another, 
I shall be indifferent whether I ever speak to an Officer in her, 
but upon duty." One wonders what passing and soon forgotten 
breeze was responsible for this most un-Nelson-like outburst. 
But to the end it remained true that between the officers and 
crews under Nelson's command and their chief, there was 
always that cordial regard which can only spring from the 
hearty sympathy of the commander with those beneath him. 

While thoughtful and considerate, even to gentleness, for 
the weak and dependent, the singular energy that quickened 
Nelson's frail and puny frame showed itself on occasion in 
instant resentment of any official slight to himself or his ship, 
or injury to the interests of the country. During the " Bo- 
reas's " stay at Madeira, the British Consul neglected to return 
his visit, on the plea that the Government allowed him no boat. 
Nelson declined any further intercourse with him. While 
lying in the Downs, he learns that sixteen British seamen are 
detained by force on board a Dutch Indiaman. He requires 
their delivery to him ; and when their effects were withheld, 
on the alleged ground of their being in debt to the ship, he 
stops all intercourse between it and the shore, sending an armed 
cutter to enforce his order. " The Admiralty," he wrote, 
"have fortunately approved my conduct in the business/' and 
added grimly, " a thing they are not very guilty of where there 
is a likelihood of a scrape." When entering the harbor of Fort 
Royal, Martinique, the principal French island in the Lesser 
Antilles, the officer at the citadel neglected to hoist the colors, 
a ceremonial observance customary when a ship of war ap- 
proached. Nelson at once demanded an explanation and 
received ample amends ; the offending party being placed under 
arrest. To the governor of some of the British West India 
islands, he wrote making suggestions for the better discharge 
of certain duties, in which both of them were interested. He 
received, it is said, a testy message that " old generals were 
not in the habit of taking advice from j^oung gentlemen." "I 
have the honour, Sir," replied Nelson, " of being as old as the 



42 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

prime nnnister of England, and think myself as capable of 
commanding one of his majesty's ships as that minister is of 
governing the state ; " and throughout he held to the stand he 
had taken. 

The most remarkable instance, however, of this promptness 
to assert the dignity and rights of his official position, allow- 
ing no man to despise his youth, occurred very soon after his 
arrival upon the station, and brought him to a direct issue with 
his commander-in-chief, — if not, indeed, with an authoritative 
precedent set by so great a man as Lord Eodney. Young 
though he still was in years, — only twenty-six, — Nelson was 
by date of commission the senior captain in the small squadron, 
of some half-dozen vessels, to which the economies of the ad- 
ministration had reduced the Leeward Islands station. Being 
thus next in rank to the admiral, the latter, who made his 
headquarters at Barbadoes in the southern part of the station, 
sent him to the northern division, centring about the island of 
Antigua. Having remained in harbor, as was usual, during the 
hurricane months, Nelson cruised during the winter and until 
February, 1785, when some damage received compelled the 
"Boreas " to put into Antigua for repairs. Here he found a 
vessel of the squadron, whose own captain was of course junior 
to him, flying a Commodore's broad pendant, which asserted 
the official presence of a captain siqoerior to himself in rank 
and command, and. duly qualified to give him orders. He at 
once asked the meaning of this from the ship's proper com- 
mander, and was informed by him that Captain Moutray, an 
old officer, twenty years his senior on the post list, and then 
acting as Commissioner of the Navy, a civil office connected 
with the dockyard at Antigua, had directed it to be hoisted, 
and claimed to exercise control over all men-of-war in the 
harbor, during the admiral's absence. 

Nelson was not ^vholly unprepared for this, for Hughes had 
notified him and the other captains that Moutray was author- 
ized by himself to take this step. Being then away from the 
island, he had replied guardedly that if Commissioner Moutray 
ivas put into commission, he would have great pleasure in 
serving under him, — thus reserving his decision to the 
moment for action. He now took the ground that an officer 
not commissioned afloat, but holding only a civil appointment, 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 43 

could not exercise naval command, — that an order authorizing 
him to do so was invalid, — that to entitle him to such com- 
mand he must be put into military commission by being 
attached to a ship in commission. He therefore flatly declined 
to obey Moutray's orders, refusing to admit his claim to be 
considered a commodore, or entitled to military obedience, 
unless he produced a commission. This he held to when 
Moutray gave him a written order to put himself under his 
command. 

On technical points of this kind Nelson was a clear and 
accurate thinker, and in the admiral he had to do with a 
muddle-headed, irresolute superior. Hughes had already been 
badly worried and prodded, on matters concerning his own 
neglected duties, by his unquiet young subordinate, who was 
never satisfied to leave bad enough alone, but kept raising 
knotty points to harass an easy-going old gentleman, who 
wanted only to be allowed to shut his eyes to what went ou 
under his nose. He was now exasperated by Nelson's con- 
tumacy, but he was also a little afraid of him, and supported 
his own order by no more decisive action than laying the case 
before the Admiralty, who informed Nelson that he should 
have referred his doubts to the admiral, instead of deciding 
for himself in a matter that concerned "the exercise of the 
functions of his [the admiral's] appointment." This was 
rather begging the question,' for Nelson expressed no doubts, 
either to Hughes or in his explanatory letter to the Admiralty. 
The latter in turn shirked thus the decision of the question, — 
for, if Nelson was right, Hughes's order was illegal and not 
entitled to obedience ; if he was wrong, he had been guilty of 
flagrant insubordination, and should have been sharply dealt 
with. The Government probably thought that the admiral 
had blundered in undertaking to give military authority to a 
civil official, — a step so generally disastrous in experience 
that it is now explicitly forbidden by the regulations of most 
navies. It is worthy of note that twenty years later, when 
commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, Nelson directed the 
captains of ships cruising in the Straits of Gibraltar to consult 
on all occasions with the Commissioner of the Navy resident 
in Gibraltar, as well as to receive his advice, if proffered, — 
adding that the commissioner's opinion of their conduct would 



44 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

have great weight with himself ; but he did not put them 
under his orders.^ 

Reasoning from Nelson's position, as the pendant was flying 
without proper authority on board a ship under his immediate 
command, he should, as senior captain afloat, have gone 
further and hauled it down. Of his authority to do so he 
felt no doubt, as is evident from his letter to the Admiralty ; 
but his motive for refraining was characteristic. He was 
unwilling to wound Moutray; just as, before Trafalgar, in 
direct disregard of the Admiralty's orders, he allowed an 
admiral going home under charges to take with him his flag- 
ship, a vessel of the first force and likely to be sorely needed 
in the approaching battle, because he was reluctant to add to 
the distress the officer was undergoing already. ''I did not 
choose to order the Commissioner's pendant to be struck, as 
Mr. Moutray is an old officer of high military character ; and 
it might hurt his feelings to be supposed wrong by so young 
an officer." The question solved itself shortly by the Com- 
missioner's returning to England ; but the controversy seems 
to have made no change in the friendly and even affectionate 
relations existing between him and his wife and Nelson. For 
Mrs. Moutray the latter had formed one of those strong ideal- 
izing attachments which sprang up from time to time along 
his path. "You may be'certain," he writes to his brother at 
the very period the discussion was pending, " I never passed 
English Harbour without a call, but alas ! I am not to have 
much comfort. My dear, sweet friend is going home. I am 
really an April day ; happy on her account, but truly grieved 
were I only to consider myself. Her equal I never saw in any 
country or in any situation. If my dear Kate [his sister] goes 
to Bath next winter she will be known to her, for my dear 
friend promised to make herself known. What an acquisition 
to any female to be acquainted with, what an example to take 
pattern from." " My sweet, amiable friend sails the 20th for 
England. I took my leave of her three days ago with a heavy 
heart. What a treasure of a woman." Eeturning to Antigua 
a few weeks later, he writes again in a sentimental vein very 
rare in him : " This country appears now intolerable, my dear 
friend being absent. It is barren indeed. English Harbour I 
1 Nicolas, vol. v. p. 356. 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 45 

hate the sight of, and Windsor I detest. I went once up the 
hill to look at the spot where I spent more happy days than 
in any one spot in the world. E'en the trees drooped their 
heads, and the tamarind tree died : — all Avas melancholy : the 
road is covered with thistles ; let them grow. I shall never 
pull one of them up." His regard for this attractive woman 
seems to have lasted through his life ; for she survived him, 
and to her Collingwood addressed a letter after Trafalgar, 
giving some particulars of Nelson's death. Her only son also 
died under the latter's immediate command, ten years later, 
when serving in Corsica. 

The chief interest of the dispute over Moutray's position 
lies not in the somewhat obscure point involved, but in the 
illustration it affords of Nelson's singular independence and 
tenacity in a matter of principle. Under a conviction of right 
he throughout life feared no responsibility and shrank from 
no consequences. It is difficult for the non-military mind to 
realize how great is the moral effort of disobeying a superior, 
whose order on the one hand covers all responsibility, and on 
the other entails the most serious personal and professional 
injury, if violated without due cause ; the burden of proving 
which rests upon the junior. For the latter it is, justly and 
necessarily, not enough that his own intentions or convictions 
were honest : he has to show, not that he meant to do right, 
but that he actually did right, in disobeying in the particular 
instance. Under no less rigorous exactions can due military 
subordination be maintained. The whole bent of advantage 
and lifelong training, therefore, draws in one direction, and is 
withstood by nothing, unless either strong personal character 
supplies a motive, or established. professional standing permits 
a man to presume upon it, and to exercise a certain right to 
independence of action. At this time Nelson was practically 
unknown, and in refusing compliance with an order he took a 
risk that no other captain on the station would have assumed, 
as was shown by their failure a few months later to support 
their convictions in an analogous controversy, upon which 
Nelson had entered even before the Moutray business. In 
both cases he staked all upon legal points, considered by him 
vital to the welfare of the navy and the country. The spirit 
was identically the same that led him to swing his ship out of 



46 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the line at Cape St. Vincent without waiting for signals. 
After that day and the Nile he could afford to take liberties, 
and sometimes took them with less justification than in his 
early career. 

When the Moutray question arose, Nelson was already 
engaged in a more far-reaching dispute, not only with his 
commander-in-chief, but with the colonial authorities and 
the popular sentiment of the West India Islands. Like 
most men, great and small, he shared the prepossessions of 
his day and generation; differing, however, from others, 
in that he held his opinions as principles, from asserting 
which he was not to be deterred by the ill-will or dislike 
of those immediately about him. Upon arriving in the 
West Indies he found flourishing a system of trade ex- 
tremely beneficial to the islands, but which his education 
condemned as hurtful to Great Britain, as it certainly was 
contrary to then existing laws that had for a century pre- 
vious regulated the commerce of the kingdom. In 1784, 
a year only had elapsed since tlie United States had been 
formally recognized as independent, thereby becoming, in 
British estimation as well as in their own, a nation foreign 
to the British flag. By the Navigation Laws, first estab- 
lished by Cromwell, but continued under the restored mon- 
archy without serious modification until 1794, trade with the 
Colonies was reserved to vessels built in Great Britain or her 
dependencies, and manned in three-fourths part by British 
subjects. The chief object and advantage of the law were 
conceived to be, not merely a monopoly of the trade, — con- 
cerning the economical wisdom of which serious doubts began 
to be felt, — but the fostering of the British merchant service 
as a nursery of seamen, upon whom, in time of war, the navy 
could draw. The military strength of the Empire was thought 
to be involved in the enforcement of the Navigation Act.^ 

Before the United States declared their independence, the}^ 
as British colonies, enjoyed the privilege of trading with their 

^ Thus Colliiigwood, rarely other than sober ami restrained in his language, 
wrote to Hughes : " It is from the idea that the greatness and superiority 
of the British navy very much depends upon preserving inviolate the Act of 
Navigation, excluding foreigners from access to the colonies, that I am in- 
duced to make this representation to you." Nicolas, vol. i. p. 172. 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 47 

fellow-colouists under what was then the common flag; and 
the nearness of the two regions contributed to the advantage 
of both in this traffic, in which tlie continental communities 
were the chief suppliers of many articles essential to the 
islands, notably provisions and lumber. This mutual inter- 
course and dependence promoted a sympathy which was 
scarcely disguised in the West Indies during the War of 
Independence ; indeed, Nelson wrote that many of the in- 
habitants were as arrant rebels as those who had renounced 
their allegiance. Under these conditions, when peace was 
restored, the old relations were readily resumed ; and as there 
had really been considerable inconvenience and loss to the 
islanders from the deprivation of American products, the 
renewal was eagerly promoted by popular sentiment. The 
local authorities, as usual and natural, yielded to the pressure 
around them, and in entire disregard of the known policy of 
the home government permitted American vessels to trade 
openly under their own colors. In Jamaica the governor 
had even gone so far as to authorize formally a free trade, 
during pleasure, with the United States, contrary to the 
explicit orders of his superiors in Great Britain. Where 
scruples were felt or hesitation was shown, advantage was 
taken of the exceptions of the law, which allowed vessels in 
distress to sell so much of their cargoes as Avould pay for 
necessary repairs. With the tendency of commerce to evade 
restrictions by liberal sti-etching of the conscience, the mer- 
chant-captain and the colonial officer found little difficulty in 
arranging that the damage should be great enough to cover 
the sale of the whole lading. 

After laying up in Antigua during the hurricane season of 
1784, Nelson was summoned to Barbadoes in November, with 
the other captains, to receive orders for the winter's cruising. 
These, when issued, were found to direct only the examina- 
tion of anchorages, and the gathering of information about 
supplies of wood and water. Nelson's attention had been 
drawn already to the American traffic ; and he, with his friend 
Collingwood, who was again on the station, went to the 
admiral, and urged that it was the duty of ships of war to 
enforce the Navigation Laws. The admiral professed igno- 
rance of these; and Nelson himself remarks that British 



48 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

vessels up to that time had been so much cheaper built than 
others, that they had, without artificial protection, naturally 
absorbed their own colonial trade, — the question, therefore, 
had dropped out of sight till it was revived by American 
competition. A copy of the Act being then produced, Hughes 
gave an order requiring his vessels to enforce it ; making 
special mention of the changed relations of the United States 
to Great Britain, whereby they were "to be considered as 
foreigners, and excluded from all commerce with the islands 
in these seas." 

With these instructions Nelson sailed again for the north, 
where the Virgin Islands, with those of Montserrat, Nevis, and 
St. Christopher, were put under his especial charge, — the 
sloop " Eattler," Captain Wilfred Collingwood, a brother of 
the well-known admiral, being associated with the "Boreas." 
At first the two officers confined their action to waniing off 
American vessels, and at times forcing them to leave ports 
where they had anchored ; but they found that either the 
vessels returned during the absence of the ships of war, or 
that permissions to land, upon what they thought trivial 
grounds, were given by the Customs' officials, in virtue of the 
exceptions to the law above mentioned. 

There matters stood until the 11th of January, 1785, Nelson 
acting by the authority of the commander-in-chief, but exer- 
cising his own discretion, and with forbearance, in carrying 
out his instructions. On the day named he received another 
order from the admiral, modifying the first upon the grounds 
of a more mature consideration, and of "the opinion of the 
King's Attorney-General " in the islands. Nelson was now 
directed, in case of a foreign merchant-ship coming within the 
limits of his station, to cause her to anchor near his own 
vessel and to report her arrival, and situation in all respects, 
to the governor of the colony where he then was ; " and if, 
after such report shall have been made and received, the gov- 
ernor or his representative shall think proper to admit the 
said foreigner into the port or harbour of the island where 
you may be, yoti are on no account to hinder or prevent such 
foreign vessel from going 171 accordingly, or to interfere any 
further in her subsequent proceedings." 

Here the admiral not only raised, but also decided, the 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 49 



point as to whether the enforcement of the ISTavigatiou Act 
rested with naval officers, or was vested only in the civil 
authorities of the islands. Nelson was convinced that an 
essential part of the duty of ships of war, and especially wlien 
peace took from them so much of their military function, was 
to afford to the commerce of the nation proper protection, of 
which a necessary feature, according to the ideas of the age, 
was the interdiction of foreign traders. A seaman, he plau- 
sibly argued, could decide better than an unprofessional man 
the questions of injuries and distress upon which the un- 
lawful traffic largely hinged. "In judging of their distress, 
no person can know better than the sea officers," he wrote to 
Hughes. " The governors may be imposed upon by false 
declarations ; we, who are on the spot, cannot." He was 
aware, also, that a petition for relaxing the Act in favor of 
the American trade with the West Indies had been referred 
to the home government, by which it had been explicitly 
rejected. Strengthened by this knowledge, but actuated, after 
all, chiefly by his invariable resoluteness to assume responsi- 
bility where he felt he was right, he replied to the admiral's 
letter with a clear statement of the facts, concluding with the 
words : " Whilst I have the honour to command an English 
man-of-war, I never shall allow myself to be subservient to 
tlie Avill of any Governor, nor co-operate with him in doing 
illegal acts. ... If I rightly understand your order of the 
29th of December, it is founded upon an Opinion of the King's 
Attorney-General, viz. : ' That it is legal for Governors or 
their representatives to admit foreigners into the ports of 
their government, if they think fit.' How the King's 
Attorney-General conceives he has a right to give an illegal 
opinion, which I assert the above is, he must answer for. I 
know the ISTavigatiou Laws." As he summed up the matter in 
a letter to his friend Locker: "Sir Eichard Hughes was a 
delicate business. I must either disobey my orders, or dis- 
obey Acts of Parliament, which the admiral was disobeying. 
I determined upon the former, trusting to the uprightness of 
my intention. In short, I wrote the Admiral that I should 
decline obeying his orders, till I had an opportunity of seeing 
and talking to him, at the same time making him an apology." 
Hughes's first impulse was to supersede his recalcitrant 

4 



50 THE LIFE OE jS'ELSON 

subordinate, and bring Lim to trial. He learned, however, 
that many of the other captains, of wliom the court must be 
formed, shared his junior's views, although they shrank, with 
the submissiveness of military men, from the decisive act of 
disobedience. The result of a trial must therefore be doubt- 
ful. He was, moreover, a fiddler, as Nelson continually 
styled him, shifting back and forth, from opinion to opinion, 
and to be relied upon for only one thing, — to dodge respon- 
sibility, if possible. Consequently, no official action was 
taken ; the commander-in-chief contented himself with wash- 
ing his hands of all accountability. He had given orders 
which would clear himself, in case Kelson's conduct was 
censured in England. If, on the contrary, it was approved, 
it would redound to the credit of the station. 

The matter was soon brought to a test. The governors and 
all the officials, particularly of the Custom House, resented 
the action of the naval officers ; but the vigilauce of the latter 
so seriously interrupted the forbidden traffic under American 
colors, that recourse was had to giving British r'egisters to 
the vessels concerned, allowing them to trade under British 
flags. This, however, was equally contrary to the ISTavigation 
Act, which forbade British registry to foreign-built ships, 
except when prizes taken in war ; and the disguise was too 
thin to baffle men like Collingwood and Nelson. The latter 
reported the practice to the home Government, in order that 
any measures deemed necessary might be taken. Meanwhile 
he patiently persisted in turning away all vessels, not British 
built, which he encountered, confining himself for the time to 
this merely passive prevention ; but finding at last that this 
was not a sufficient deterrent, he gave notice that after the 
1st of IVIay, 1785, he would seize all American vessels trading 
to the islands, "let them be registered by whom they might." 
Accordingly, on the 2d of May he arrested an American- 
built schooner, owned in Philadelphia and manned entirely 
by Americans, biit having a British register issued at the 
island of St. Christopher. 

The Crown lawyer was now called upon to prosecute the 
suit. He expressed grave doubts as to a naval captain's 
power to act by virtue simply of his commission, the sole 
authority alleged by the captor ; and, although he proceeded 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 51 

with the case, his manner so betrayed his uncertainty that 
Nelson felt it necessary to plead for himself. To the con- 
fusion of all opponents the judge decided in his favor, sayino- 
lie had an undoubted right to seize vessels transgressino' the 
Navigation Laws. The principle thus established, Nelson on 
the 23d of the same month, at the island of Nevis, upon the 
same grounds, seized four vessels, — one of which had been 
registered at Dominica by Governor Orde, a naval captain 
senior in rank to himself, and with whom he came into 
unpleasant contact upon several occasions in his later life. 

There was no serious question as to the condemnation of 
the four last seizures, the facts being clear and the principle 
settled;^ but the rage of the inhabitants of Nevis led them 
to seek revenge upon Nelson for the injury they could no 
longer prevent. He had summoned the masters of the ships 
on board the " Boreas," and, after satisfying himself that the 
vessels were not entitled to British registers, had sent marines 
to hold them, and to prevent essential witnesses from leaving 
them, until the cases were tried. Upon these circumstances 
was based an accusation of assault and imprisonment, the 
masters swearing that they had made their statements under 
bodily fear. Writs were issued against Nelson, damages 
being laid at four thousand pounds, a sura which to him meant 
ruin. Although he asserted that there was absolutely no truth 
in the charges, which are certainly in entire contradiction 
to the general, if not invariable, tenor of liis life and conduct, 
he was advised by the Crown lawyers not to subject himself to 
trial, as in the state of public feeling he could not expect a 
fair verdict. To avoid arrest, he was forced to confine him- 
self to the ship for seven weeks, during which the marshal 
made several attempts to serve the writ, but without success. 
On the day that the case of the seized ships came up, he was 
able to be present in court only by the safe conduct of the judge. 

1 Nelson's letters are contradictory on this point. In a letter to Locker of 
March 3, 1786, lie says, "Before the first vessel was trii;d I liael seized four 
others ; " whereas in the formal and detailed narrative drawn nj) — without 
date, but later than the letter to Locker — he says the first vessel was tried 
and condemned May 17, the other four seized May 23. (Nicolas, vol. i. pp. 
177, 178.) The author has followed the latter, because from the particularity 
of dates it seems to have been compiled from memoranda, that of Locker 
written from memory, — both nearly a year after the events. 



52 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Two days after the seizure of the four vessels, Sir Kiehard 
Hughes, who was making a tour of the station under his 
command, arrived at Nevis ; but he had no support to give 
his zealous lieutenant. " He did not appear to be pleased 
with my conduct," wrote Nelson to Locker. " At least he 
did not approve it, but told me I shovxld get into a scrape. 
Seven weeks I was kept a close prisoner to my ship ; nor did 
I ever learn that the admiral took any steps for my release. 
He did not even acquaint the Admiralty Board how cruelly 
I had been treated ; nor of the attempts which had been made 
to take me out of ray ship by force, and that indignity offered 
under the fly of his flag." " I had the governor, the Customs, 
all the planters upon me ; subscriptions were soon tilled to 
prosecute ; and my admiral stood neuter, although his flag 
was then in the roads." To this lack of countenance on the 
part of his superior, and direct persecution by those injuri- 
ously affected by his action, there was added a general social 
ostracism, to which he frequently alludes, and which was 
particularly emphasized by its contrast with the habits of 
hospitality prevalent among the small and wealthy planter 
community. One friend, however, stood by him, and offered 
to become his bail in the sum of ten thousand pounds, — Mr. 
Herbert, the President of Nevis, and one of the wealthiest 
men in the island. He had, Nelson said, suffered more than 
any one else from the interruption of the trade, but he con- 
sidered that the young captain had done only his duty. 
Possibly there may have been a warmer feeling underlying 
this esteem, for he was the uncle of the lady whom Nelson 
afterwards married, and to whom he seems to have been pay- 
ing attention already. 

Despite his indomitable pluck and resolve, the confinement, 
uncertainty, and contention told heavily on Nelson's health 
and spirits. His temper was too kindly and social not to feel 
the general alienation. It could not affect his purpose; but 
the sense of right-doing, which sustained him in that, did not 
make his road otherwise easier. It is, indeed, especially to 
be noticed that there was not in him that hard, unyielding 
fibre, upon which care, or neglect, or anxiety makes little 
impression. He was, on the contrary, extremely sympathetic, 
even emotional ; and although insensible to bodily fear, he 



THE CRUISE OF THE "BOREAS" 53 

was by no means so to censure, or to risk of other misfortune. 
To this susceptibility to worry, strong witness is borne by an 
expression of his, used at the veiy time of which we are now 
writing. One of his friends — Captain Pole of the Kavy — 
had detained and sent in a neutral vessel for breach of bel- 
ligerent rights. After long legal j^roceediugs, extending over 
five years, she was condemned, and proved to be a very valu- 
able prize to the captors. " Our friend Charles Pole," he 
writes, " has been fortunate in his trial ; but the lottery is so 
very much against an officer, that never will I knowingly 
involve myself in a doubtful cause. Prize-money is doubtless 
very acceptable ; but my mind would have suffered so much, 
that no pecuniary compensation, at so late a period, would 
have made me amends." Contrasting this utterance with the 
resolution shown by him at this time, in fighting what he 
considered the cause of his country in the West Indies, it can 
be seen how much stronger with him was the influence of 
duty than that exercised by any considerations of merely 
material advantage. In the one he could find support; in 
the other not. But in neither case was he insensible to care, 
nor could he escape the physical consequences of anxiety 
upon a delicate frame and nervous organization. Of this, his 
harassment in the pursuit of the French fleet in 1798, during 
Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition, gave a very conspicuous 
illustration. 

With such a temperament, being now very much in the 
position of an individual fighting a corporation, he appealed 
to the home Government; addressing, on the 29th of June, 
1785, a memorial to the King, setting forth the facts of the 
case, as already given, adding that his health was much 
impaired, and asking for assistance. He received a reply to 
this in the following September, informing him that the King 
had directed that he should be defended by the Crown law- 
yers. This implied approval of his course was s\icceeded, in 
November, by a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, 
through the usual official channels of the Admiralty, acquaint- 
ing him that the Government was " of opinion that the 
commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, and officers under 
him, have shown a very commendable zeal, in endeavouring 
to put a stop to the very illicit practices which were carrying 



54 Till-: LIL-'E OF KELSON 

on ill the islands, in open violation of the law, and to the 
great detriment of tlie navigation and trade of his Majesty's 
dominions." Verily, Hughes had his reward. Here he was 
commended in express terms for doing that which he had 
been too prndent to do, for zeal which he had never shown, 
for maintaining a law which he had given orders not to main- 
tain. "I own I was surprised,'' wrote Nelson, "that the 
commander-in-chief should be thanked for an act which he 
did not order, but which, if I understand the meaning of 
words, by his order of the 29th December, 1784, he ordered not 
to be." " To the end of the station,^ his order of the 29th of 
December was never repealed, so that I always acted with a rod 
over me." How heavily the responsibility he assumed was felt 
b}'' others, is clearly shown in another statement made by him. 
*' The Captains Collingwood were the only officers, with myself, 
who ever attempted to hinder the illicit trade with America ; 
and I stood' si nglij with respect to seizing, for the other officers 
were fearful of being brought into scrapes." 

Backed by the royal approval, and with his legal expenses 
guaranteed. Nelson's course was now smooth. He continued 
in all parts of the station to suppress the contraband trade, 
and his unpopularity, of course, also continued ; but excite- 
ment necessarily subsided as it became clear that submission 
was unavoidable, and as men adapted themselves to the new 
conditions. The whole procedure now looks somewhat bar- 
barous and blundering, but in no essential principle differs 
from the methods of protection to which the world at present 
seems again tending. It is not for us to throw stones at it. 
The results, then, were completely successful, judged by the 
standards of the time. "At this moment," wrote Nelson 
some few months later, " there are nearly fifty sail employed 
in the trade between the Islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, and 
America, which are truly British built, owned, and navigated. 
Had I been an idle spectator, my firm belief is that not a 
single vessel would have belonged to those islands in the 
foreign trade." His own action was further endorsed by the 
ministry, which now gave captains of ships-of-war much more 

1 This word is used by Nelson, apparently, as equivalent to "season," — 
the cruising period in the "West Indies. " The admiral wishes to remain an- 
Other statjpw," he writes elsewhere. 



THE cruisp: of the "boreas" 



extensive powers, thereby justifying his contention that it 
was within their office to enforce the Navigation Act. Xor 
was this increjised activity of the executive branch of the 
government the only result of Xelson's persistence. His 
sagacious study of the whole question, under the local con- 
ditions of the West Indies, led to his making several sug- 
gestions for more surely carrying out the spirit of the Law; 
and these were embodied the next year in a formal Act of the 
Legislature. 

With so vivid a career as tliat of Nelson ahead, the delay 
imposed by this wrangling episode is somewhat dreary ; but 
it undeniably shows his characteristics in the strongest light. 
Duty, not ease; honor, not gain; the ideal, not the material, 

— such, not indeed without frailty and blemish, were ever 
his motives. And, while he craved his reward in the ap- 
proval and recognition of those around and above him, he 
could find consolation for the lack of them in his own sense 
of right-doing. " That thing called Honour," he writes to a 
friend soon after the " r>oreas " cruise, "is now, alas! thought 
of no more. My integrity cannot be mended, I hope ; but 
my fortune, God knows, has grown worse for the service ; so 
much for serving my country. But I have invariably laid 
down, and followed close, a jjlan of what ought to be upper- 
most in the breast of an officer : that it is much better to 
serve an ungrateful Country than to give up his own fame. 
Posterity will do him justice; a uniform conduct of honour 
and integrity seldom fails of bringing a man to the goal of 
fame at last." 

This struggle with Sir Ricliard Hughes, in wliich Nelson 
took the undesiraljle, and to a naval officer invidious, step of 
disobeying orders, showed clearly, not only the loftiness of 
his motives, but the distinguishing features which constituted 
the strength of his character, both personal and military. 
There was an acute perception of the right thing to do, an 
entire readiness to assume all the responsibility of doing it, 
and above all an accurate judgment of the best way to do it, 

— to act with impunity to himself and with most chances of 
success to his cause. Its analogy to a military situation is 
striking. There was a wrong condition of things to be 
righted — a victory to be won. To achieve this a great risk 



56 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

must be taken, and he was willing to take it ; but in so doing 
he made such choice of his ground as to be practically unas- 
sailable — to attain his end without lasting harm to himself. 
That Nelson would have managed better had he been ten 
years older is very probable. Likely enough he betrayed 
some of the carelessness of sensibilities which the inexperi- 
ence of youth is too apt to show towards age ; but, upon a 
careful review of the whole, it appears to the writer that his 
general course of action was distinctly right, judged by the 
standards of the time and the well-settled principles of 
military obedience, and that he pursued an extremely diffi- 
cult line of conduct with singular resolution, with sound 
judgment, and, in the main, with an unusual amount of tact, 
without which he could scarcely have failed, however well 
purposing, to lay himself open to serious consequences. Cer- 
tainly he achieved success. 

It was in the midst of this legal warfare, and of the pre- 
occupations arising from it, that JSTelson first met the lady 
who became his wife. She was by birth a Miss Frances 
Woolward, her mother being a sister of the Mr. Herbert 
already mentioned as President of the Council in Nevis. She 
was born in the first half of 1758,^ and was therefore a few 
months older than Nelson. In 1779 she had married Dr. 
Josiah Msbet, of Nevis, and the next year was left a widow 
with one son, who bore his father's full name. After her 
husband's death, being apparently portionless, she came to 
live with Herbert, who looked upon and treated her as his 
own child, although he also had an only daughter. When 
Nelson first arrived at Nevis, in January, 1785,^ she was 
absent, visiting friends in a neighboring island, so that they 
did not then meet, — a circumstance somewhat fortunate for 
us, because it led to a description of him being sent to her in 
a letter from a lady of Herbert's family, not improbably her 

^ Lady Nelson's tombstone in Littleham Chiirclij'ard, Exmouth, reads that 
she died Maj' 6, 1831, "aged 73." She would then have been born before 
May 6, 1758. The Annual Register for 1831 gives May 4, as tlie date of her 
death, and her age 68. 

2 Prior to May, 1785, the only stops of the "Boreas" at Nevis were Jan- 
nary 6-8, February 1-4, and March 11-15. (Boreas's Log in Nicolas's 
Letters and Despatches of Lord Nelson, vol. vii. Addenda, pp. viii, ix.) 



COURTSHIP 57 



cousin, Miss Herbert. Nelson had then become a somewhat 
conspicuous factor in the contracted interests of the island 
society, owing to the stand he had already publicly assumed 
Avith reference to the contraband trade. People were talking 
about him, although he had not as yet enforced the extreme 
measures which made him so unpopular. " We have at last," 
so ran the letter, " seen the little captain of the Boreas of 
whom so much has been said. He came up just before din- 
ner, much heated, and was very silent; but seemed, according 
to the old adage, to think the more. He declined drinking 
any wine ; but after dinner, when the president, as usual, 
gave the three following toasts, 'the King,' 'the Queen and 
Royal Family,' and 'Lord Hood,' this strange man regularly 
filled his glass, and observed that those were always bumper 
toasts with him ; which, having drank, he uniformly passed 
the bottle, and relapsed into his former taciturnity. It was 
impossible, during this visit, for any of us to make out his 
real character ; there was such a reserve and sternness in his 
behaviour, with occasional sallies, though very transient, of 
a superior mind. Being placed by him, I endeavoured to 
rouse his attention by showing him all the civilities in my 
power; but I drew out little more than 'Yes,' and 'No.' If 
you, Fanny, had been there, we think you would have made 
something of him, for you have been in the habit of attending 
to these odd sort of people." 

Mrs. Nisbet very quickly made something of him. Little 
direct description has been transmitted to us concerning the 
looks or characteristics of the woman who now, at the time 
when marriage was possible to him, had the misfortune to 
appear in the line of succession of Nelson's early fancies, and 
to attract the too easily aroused admiration and affection of a 
man whose attachment she had not the inborn power to bind. 
That Nelson was naturally inconstant, beyond the volatility 
inherent in youth, is sufficiently disproved by the strength and 
endurance of his devotion to the one woman, in whom he either 
found or imagined the qualities that appealed to the heroic 
side of his character. How completely she mastered all the 
approaches to his heart, and retained her supremacy, once 
established, to the end, is evidenced by the whole tenor of his 
correspondence with her, by his mention of her in letters to 



58 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

others, by the recorded expressions he used in speaking to or 
about her. Despite all that he certainly knew of her, and 
much more that it is uu reasonable to doubt he must have 
known of her history, there is no mistaking the profound 
emotions she stirred in his spirit, which show themselves con- 
tinually in spontaneous outbreaks of passionate fondness and 
extravagant admiration, whose ring is too true and strong for 
doubt concerning their reality to find a place. 

Many men are swayed by strong and wayward impulses; 
but to most the fetters imposed by social conventions, by in- 
herited or implanted standards of seemliness and decorum, 
suffice to steady them in the path of outward propriety. Of 
how great and absorbing a passion Lord Nelson was capable 
is sliown by the immensity of the sacrifice that he made to it. 
Principle apart, — and principle wholly failed him, — all else 
that most appeals to man's self-respect and regard for the 
esteem of others was powerless to exert control. Loyalty to 
friendship, the sanctity which man is naturally fain to see in 
the woman he loves, and, in Nelson's own case, a peculiar re- 
luctance to wound another, — all these were trampled under 
foot, and ruthlessly piled on the holocaust which he offered to 
her whom he worshipped. He could fling to the winds, as 
others cannot, considerations of interest or expediency, as he 
flung them over and over in his professional career. My 
motto, he said once and again, is " All or nothing." The same 
disregard of consequences that hazarded all for all, in battle 
or for duty, broke through the barriers within which prudence, 
reputation, decency, or even weakness and cowardice, confine 
the actions of lesser men. And it must be remembered that 
the admitted great stain upon Nelson's fame, Avhicli it would 
be wicked to deny, lies not in a general looseness of life, but 
in the notoriety of one relation, — a notoriety due chiefly to 
the reckless singleness of heart which was not ashamed to 
own its love, but rather gloried in the public exhibition of a 
faith in the worthiness of its object, and a constancy, which 
never wavered to the hour of his death. ^ The pitifulness of 

1 The author is satisfied, from casual expressions in Nelson's letters to 
Lady Hamilton, that his famous two years' confinement to the ship, 1803- 
1805, and, to a less extent, the similar seclusion practised in the Baltic and 
the Downs, proceeded, in large part at least, from a romantic and chivalrous 



COURTSHIP 59 



it is to see the incongruity between such faith, such devotion, 
and the distasteful inadequacy of their object. 

To answer the demands of a nature capable of such energetic 
manifestation — to fulfil the imagination of one who could so 
cast himself at the feet of an ideal — was beyond the gentle, 
well-ordered, and somewhat prosaic charms with which alone 
Mrs. Nisbet was invested by Nelson, even when most loverlike 
in tone. ''My greatest wish," he writes in the first of his 
letters to her that has been preserved, " is to be united to you ; 
and the foundation of all conjugal happiness, real love and 
esteem, is, I trust, what you believe I possess' in the strongest 
degree toward you." Fifteen months later, and but a short 
time before their wedding, he says again : " His Eoyal High- 
ness often tells me, he believes I am married ; for he never 
saw a lover so easy, or say so little of the object he has a regard 
for. When I tell him I certainly am not, he says, ' Then he 
is sure I must have a great esteem for you, and that it is not 
what is (vulgarly), I do not much like the use of that word, 
called love.' He is right : my love is founded on esteem, the 
only foundation that can make the passion last." But general 
maxims, even when less disputable than this, do not admit of 
luiiversal application ; and if an affection was to hold its own 
in a nature enthusiastic and imaginative as that of Nelson, it 
had need to strike root deeper than that surface soil indicated 
by mere esteem, at least when the latter rests simply upon an 
assemblage of upright and amiable qualities, and not upon that 
force of character which compels dependence as well as appre- 
ciation. At their last parting he solemnly avowed that his 
esteem was not lessened; while he was destined also to afford 
a conspicuous illustration of how enduring a passion may 
flourish where no just title to esteem exists. 

The progress of his wooing was rapid enough. On the 12th 
of May he first mentions their meeting ; on the 28th of June 
he writes to his brother : '•'■ Entrenoxis. — Do not be surprised 
to hear I am a Benedict, for if at all, it will be before a month. 
Do not tell." On the lltli of September is dated his first 
letter to her, already quoted, in which he addresses her as 
" My dear Fanny," and alludes to the understanding existing 

resolve to leave no room for donbt, in the mind of Lady Hamilton or of the 
world, that he was entire!}' faithful to her. 



60 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

between tliem. At the expiration of six months he wrote, for- 
mally announcing his engagement, to Mr. William Suckling, 
his mother's brother. He anticipates the latter's doubts as to 
the permanence of this fancy: "This Horatio, you will say, is 
for ever in love ; " but he considers that six months without 
change settles that question. " My present attachment is of 
pretty long standing ; but I was determined to be fixed before 
I broke this matter to any person." He then explains the sit- 
uation,— that the lady herself has little or nothing; that Mr. 
Herbert, though rich, is not likely to help the young couple 
much, and he asks his uncle's assistance. This Suckling con- 
sented to give, and for several years continued liberally to 
extend. But still, impatient though Nelson always was to 
complete whatever he had on hand, various causes delayed the 
wedding for another year. Even with Suckling's help the 
question of means was pressing; and while, with pardonable 
self -justification, he gloried to his betrothed that "the world 
is convinced that I am superior to pecuniary considerations in 
my public and private life, as in both instances I might have 
been rich," he nevertheless owned to regretting that he " had 
not given greater attention to making money." Besides, as 
he wrote to his brother, " What should I do carrying a wife 
in a ship, and when I marry I do not mean to part with my 
wife." The cruising duty of the " Boreas " took her from 
port to port of the limited area embraced in the Leeward 
Islands Station, and Nevis was among the least important of 
the points demanding his attention. He was, therefore, fre- 
quently away from his betrothed during this period, and 
absence rather fanned than cooled the impetuous ardor which 
he carried into all his undertakings. Whether it were the 
pursuit of a love affair, or the chase of an enemy's fleet, de- 
lays served only to increase the vehemence with which Nelson 
chafed against difficulties. " Duty," he tells Mrs. Nisbet, " is 
the great business of a sea officer, — all private considerations 
must give way to it, however painful it is ; " but he owns he 
wishes " the American vessels at the Devil, and the whole 
continent of America to boot," because they detain him from 
her side. 

There is no singularity in the experience that obstacles tend 
rather to inflame than to check a lover's eagerness. What is 



COURTSHIP 61 



noteworthy in Nelson's letters at this time is the utter absence 
of any illusions, of any tendency to exaggerate and glorify the 
qualities of the woman who for the nonce possessed his heart. 
There is not a sign of the perturbation of feeling, of the stir- 
ring of the soul, that was afterwards so painfully elicited 
by another influence. " The dear object," he writes to his 
brother, "you must like. Her sense, polite manners, and, to 
you I may say, beauty, you will much admire. She possesses 
sense far superior to half the people of our acquaintance, and 
her manners are Mrs. Moutray's." The same calm, measured 
tone pervades all his mention of her to others. His letters to 
herself, on the other hand, are often pleasing in the quiet, 
simple, and generally unaffected tenderness which inspires 
them. In a more ordinary man, destined to more common- 
place fortunes, they might well be regarded as promising that 
enduring wedded love which strikes root downward and bears 
fruit upward, steadily growing in depth and devotion as the 
years roll by. But Nelson was not an ordinary man, and 
from that more humble happiness a childless marriage further 
debarred him. He could rise far higher, and, alas! descend 
far lower as he followed the radiant vision, — the image of his 
own mind rather than an external reality, — the ideal, which, 
whether in fame or in love, beckoned him onward. The calm, 
even, and wholly matter-of-fact appreciation of his wife's esti- 
mable traits can now be seen in the light of his after career, 
and its doubtful augury descried ; for to idealize was an es- 
sential attribute of his temperament. Her failure, even in the 
heyday of courtship, to arouse in him any extravagance of 
emotion, any illusive exaltation of her merits, left vacant that 
throne in his mind which could be permanently occupied only 
by a highly wrought excellence, — even though that were the 
purely subjective creation of his own enthusiasm. This hold 
Lady Nelson never gained ; and the long absence from 1793 
to 1797, during the opening period of the war of the French 
Revolution, probably did to death an affection which owed 
what languid life it retained cliiefly to propinquity and cus- 
tom. Both Saumarez and Codrington, who served under him, 
speak passingly of the lightness with which his family ties 
sat upon Nelson in the years following his short stay at home 
in 1797. The house was empty, swept, and garnished, when 



62 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the simple-minded, if lion-hearted, seaman came under the 
spell of one whose fascinations had overpowered the resistance 
of a cool-headed man of the world, leading him in his old age, 
with open eyes, to do what every prepossession and every 
reasonable conviction of his life condemned as folly. 

In the summer of 1786 Sir Richard Hughes was recalled to 
England. During the later part of his association with 
Nelson, the strain which had characterized their earlier rela- 
tions had not only disappeared, but had been succeeded by 
feelings approaching cordiality. The Government's approval 
of his subordinate's action, and of himself as credited with 
supporting it, had removed that element of apprehension 
which in timid men induces irritation ; and Hughes, who, 
though irresolute, was naturally kindly, had been still farther 
placated by the prize-money falling to him from the vessels 
condemned through the zeal of" Nelson. The latter, who never 
harbored malice, easily forgave the past, and responded to this 
change of tone. " I have been upon the best terms with the 
Admiral," he wrote from Barbadoes to his intended wife in 
April, 1786, "and I declare I think I could ever remain so. 
He is always remarkably kind and civil to every one ; " and 
again, a few days earlier, " The admiral is highly pleased with 
my conduct here, as you will believe, by sending me such fine 
lines with a white hat. I well know I am not of abilities to 
deserve what he has said of me : but I take ib as they are 
meant, to show his regard for me ; and his politeness and 
attention to me are great : nor shall I forget it. I like the 
man, although not all his acts." He then directs that the 
lines shall not be shown to any one, " as the compliment is 
paid to me at the expense of the officers of the squadron," an 
injunction thoroughly characteristic of the man's kindly con- 
sideration for others. It was creditable to Hughes that, after 
being so braved, and his instructions set at naught by his 
junior, he had candor enough to see and acknowledge his 
merit ; but the fact still remained that in the hour of trial he 
had failed Nelson, nor did the latter, though he forgave, for- 
get it. As he wrote to Locker in September, 1786, after the 
admiral's departure, " Instead of being supported by my 
admiral, I was obliged to keep him up, for he was frightened 
at this business ; " of which business he truly said, emphasiz- 



LEFT SENIOR OFFICER IN THE WEST INDIES G?j 

ing, but not at all exaggerating, the gravity of the responsi- 
bility he had taken in defiance of his superior : " After loss of 
health and risk of fortune, another is thanked for what I did 
against his orders. Either I deserved to he sent out of the 
service,'^ or at least to have had some little notice taken of 
me." 

Nelson indeed, in the West Indies, as an unknown captain, 
had done that which as a junior admiral he did later at Copen- 
hagen, at a moment far more critical to Great Britain. By 
his own unusual powers of impulse and resolve he had en- 
forced, as far as was possible against the passive, inert lethargy 
— not to say timidity — of his superior, the course of action 
which at the moment was essential to the interests of his 
country. Truly great in his strength to endure, he knew not 
the perturbations nor the vacillations that fret the temper, 
and cripple the action, of smaller men ; and, however harassed 
and distressed externally, the calmness of a clear insight and 
an unshaken purpose guided his footsteps, unwavering, in the 
path of duty, through all opposition, to the goal of success. 
It is reported that an officer of the " Boreas," speaking to him 
of the vexations and odium he had undergone, used the word 
" pity." Nelson's reply showed the profound confidence which 
throughout had animated him, keenly as he had undoubtedly 
felt the temporary anxieties. "Pity, did you say? I shall 
live. Sir, to be envied ; and to that point I shall always direct 
my course." 

By the departure of Sir Eichard Hughes Nelson was left 
senior officer upon the station until his own return home, a 
twelvemonth later. In November he renewed his acquaint- 
ance with Prince William Henry, whom he had known as a 
midshipman in 1782, and who now came to the Leeward 
Islands a post-captain, in command of the frigate " Pegasus." 
The two young men Avere not far apart in age, and an 
intimacy between them soon arose, which ended only with the 
death of Nelson. The latter had a profound reverence for 
royalty, both as an institution and as represented in its raem- 

1 The author has italicized these words because they accurately express the 
just peualty that military law would have required of Nelson, had he not 
shown adequate grounds for his disobedience. They measure, tlierefore, the 
responsibility he shouldered, and the reward he deserved. 



64 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

bers; and to this, in the present case, was added a strong 
personal esteem, based upon the zeal and efficiency in the dis- 
charge of official duties, which he recognized in one whose 
rank would assure him impunity for any mere indifference. 
The prince, on the other hand, quickly yielded to the charm 
of Nelson's intercourse, so vividly felt by most who knew 
him, and to the contagious enthusiasm which animated his 
conversation when talking of his profession. This, also, his 
ardent imagination endowed with possibilities and aspirations, 
not greater, indeed, than its deserts, but which only the intui- 
tions of a genius like his could realize and vivify, imparting 
to slower temperaments something of his own fire. To this 
association the prince afterwards attributed the awakening of 
that strong interest in maritime affairs which he retained to 
the day of his death. The two friends dined alternately one 
with the other, and, in their association of some six months at 
this time, they together fought over all the naval battles that 
during the recent war had illustrated the waters through 
which they were then cruising. 

The incessant energy displayed by Nelson, and the agitations 
through which he passed during the three years of this stay 
upon the West Indian station, again produced distressing symp- 
toms in his general health. To use his own words, the activity 
of the mind was " too much for my puny constitution." '' I am 
worn to a skeleton," he writes to Mr. Suckling in July, 1786 ; 
and three months later to Locker, " I have been since June so 
very ill that I have only a faint recollection of anything which 
I did. My complaint was in my breast, such a one as I had 
going out to Jamaica [in 1777]. The Doctor thought I was 
in a consumption, and quite gave me up." This fear, how- 
ever, proved unfounded ; nor does there appear at any time to 
have been any serious trouble with his lungs. 

On the 11th ^ of March, 1787, the marriage of Captain 
Nelson to Mrs. Nisbet took place at Nevis. Prince William 
Henry, whose rule it was never to visit in any private house, 
made an exception on this occasion, having exacted from 

1 Sir Harris Nicolas (Nelson's Despatches and Letters, vol. 1. p. 217) gives 
March 12 as the daj' of the wedding, upon the ground of a letter of Lady- 
Nelson's. Her mention of the date is, however, rather casual ; and March 11 
is given in the parish register of the church in Nevis. 



THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS IN HOLLAND 60 

Nelson a promise that the wedding should wait until he 
could be present ; and he gave away the bride. Three 
months later, on the 7th of June, the " Boreas " sailed for 
England, and on the 4th of July anchored at Spithead. 
Whether Mrs. Nelson accompanied him in the ship does not 
appear certainly ; but from several expressions in his letters 
it seems most probable that she did. Five days after his ar- 
rival he sent a message from her to Locker, in terms which 
indicate that she was with him. 

A newly married man, who had just concluded a full cruise 
of such arduous and unremitting exertions, might reasonably 
have wished and expected a period of relaxation ; but the 
return of the " Boreas " coincided with a very disturbed state 
of European politics. In the neighboring republic of Holland 
two parties were striving for the mastery ; one of which was 
closely attached to France, the other, that of the Stadtholder, 
to Great Britain. In 1785 the former had gained the upper 
hand ; and, by a treaty signed on Christmas Day of that year, 
a decided preponderance in the councils of the United Prov- 
inces had been given to France. The enfeebled condition of 
the latter country, however, had allowed little prospect of 
permanence to this arrangement ; and in the summer of 1787, 
an insult offered by the French party to the wife of the Stadt- 
holder led to a forcible intervention by the King of Prussia, 
whose sister she was. Louis XVI. prepared to support his 
partisans, and notified his purpose to Great Britain ; where- 
upon the latter, whose traditional policy for over a century 
had been to resist the progress of French influence in the Low 
Countries, replied that she could not remain a quiet spectator, 
and at once began to arm. " The Dutch business," wrote 
Nelson, " is becoming every day more serious ; and I hardly 
think we can keep from a war, without giving forever the 
weight of the Dutch to the French, and allowing the Stadt- 
holdership to be abolished, — things which I should suppose 
hardly possible." Already his eager spirit was panting for 
the fray. " If we are to have a bustle, I do not want to come 
on shore ; I begin to think I am fonder of the sea than ever." 
Only five months married ! 

The threatening aspect of affairs necessitated the " Boreas " 
being kept in commission, — the more so because the economies 

5 



THE LIFE OP NELSON 



introduced by Mr. Pitt into the administration of the two 
military services had reduced the available naval force below 
that which France could at once send out. " The Boreas is 
kept in readiness to go to sea with the squadron at Spithead," 
wrote Nelson ; " but in my poor opinion we shall go no further 
at present. The French have eight sail in Brest water ready 
for sea: therefore I think we shall not court the French out 
of port," — a singular illustration of the unreadiness of Great 
Britain in the years immediately preceding the French Revolu- 
tion. He looks for war, however, the following summer. As 
not only ships, but men also, were urgently needed, the impress 
service was hastily organized. His friend Locker was sum- 
moned from his long retirement to superintend that work in 
Exeter, and the " Boreas " was ordered to the Thames on the 
same business, arriving on the 20th of August at the Nore. 
There her duty was to board passing vessels, and take from 
them as many of their crew as were above the number barely 
necessary for the safety of the ship. She herself, besides act- 
ing as receiving ship for the men thus pressed, was to be kept 
in readiness to sail at a moment's warning. Mrs. Nelson had 
therefore to leave her and go to London. " Here we are," 
wrote Nelson on the 23d of September, " laying seven miles 
from the land on the Impress service, and I am as much sep- 
arated from my wife as if I were in the East Indies ; " and he 
closes the letter with the words, " I am this moment getting 
under sail after some ships." 

His early biographers say that Nelson keenly felt and re- 
sented the kind of service in which he was then engaged ; so 
much so that, moved also by other causes of irritation, he 
decided at one time to quit the Navy. No indication of such 
feeling, however, appears in his letters. On the contrary, one 
of the surest signs with him of pleasurable, or at least of in- 
terested, excitement was now manifested in his improving 
health. As he himself said, many years later, " To say the 
truth, when I am actively employed I am not so bad." ^ A 
month after reaching England, though then midsummer, he 

1 The same symptom will be noted in the anxious pursuit of Villcneuve to 
the West Indies in 1805, where he grew better, although for some months he 
liad had in his hands the Admiralty's permission to return home on account of 
his health. 






LACK OF APPRECIATION 6*7 

Avrote : " It is not kind in one's native air to treat a poor 
wanderer as it has me since my arrival. The rain and cold, 
at first gave me a sore throat and its accompaniments; the 
hot weather has given me a slow fever, not absolutely bad 
enough to keep my bed, yet enough to hinder me from doing 
anything;" and again, "I have scarcely been able to hold, up 
my head." In blustering October, on the other hand, while 
in the midst of the detested Impress work, he says : " My 
health, thank God, was never better, and I am fit for any 
quarter of the globe ; " although " it rains hard, and we have 
had very bad weather of late." Whatever momentary vexa- 
tion he may have vented in a hasty expression, it was entirely 
inconsistent with his general tone to take amiss an employ- 
ment whose vital importance he would have been the first to 
admit. Lack of zeal, or haggling about the duty assigned him, 
was entirely foreign to his character ; that the country needed 
the men who were to be pressed was reason sufficient for one 
of his temper. If, indeed, there had been an apparent inten- 
tion to keep him in such inglorious occupation, and out of 
the expected war, he might have chafed ; but his orders to 
be constantly ready indicated the intention to send him at 
once to the front, if hostilities began. Doubtless he was dis- 
appointed that the application he made for a ship-of-the-line 
was not granted ; but he knew that, being still a very young 
captain, what he asked was a favor and its refusal not a griev- 
ance, nor does he seem to have looked upon it otherwise. 

There were, however, some annoyances, which, joined to 
tlie lack of appreciation for his eminent services to the inter- 
ests of the nation in tlie West Indies, must have keenly stung 
him. Without the slightest necessity, except that laid upon 
him by his own public spirit, he had fought and struggled, 
and endured three years of hot water to serve the Government. 
He might have gone easy, as did the admiral and the other 
captains ; but instead of so doing he had destroyed the con- 
traband trade, and re-established the working of laws upon 
which the prosperity and security of the kingdom were 
thought to depend. For this he had received a perfunctory, 
formal acknowledgment, though none apparently from the 
Admiralty, the head of his own service. But he soon found 
that, if slow to thank, they were prompt to blame, and that 



68 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Avith no light hand nor disposition to make allowances. He 
had run his head against various regulations of the bureau- 
cracy ; and this let him know, Avith all the amenities of offi- 
cial censure, that if they could not recognize what he had 
done well, they were perfectly clear-sighted as to where he 
had gone wrong. 

So far from appreciation, there seems even to have been a 
prejudice against Nelson in high quarters, due not only to the 
discomposure felt by the routine official, at the rude irregulari- 
ties of the man who is more concerned to do his work than 
nice about the formalities surrounding it, but also to misrep- 
resentation by the powerful interests he had offended through 
his independent course in the West Indies. After Hughes 
had gone home, Nelson, as senior officer on the station, began 
to examine the modes of conducting government business, and 
especially of making purchases. Conceiving that there were 
serious irregularities in these, he suggested to the Civil De- 
partment of the Navy, under whose cognizance the transac- 
tions fell, some alterations in the procedure, by which the 
senior naval officer would have more control over the pur- 
chases than simply to certify that so much money was wanted. 
The Comptroller of the Navy replied that the old forms were 
sufficient, — "a, circumstance which hurt me," wrote Nelson ; 
while all the civil functionaries resented his interference with 
their methods, and seem to have received the tacit support, if 
not the direct sympathy, of the Navy Board, as the Civil De- 
partment was then called. His disposition to look into matters, 
however, had become known, and the long struggle over the 
contraband trade had given him in the islands a reputation 
for tenacity and success. It was probably in dependence upon 
these that two merchants came to him, two months before he 
left the station, and told him of the existence of very exten- 
sive frauds, dating back several years, in which were impli- 
cated both civil officials of the Navy and private parties on 
shore. It is possible that the informants themselves had 
shared in some of these transactions, and they certainly de- 
manded in payment a part of the sums recovered ; but, as 
Nelson truly said, the question was not as to their character, 
but how to stop the continuance of embezzlements which had 
then amounted to over two millions sterling. 



DISCONTENT WITH SERVICE, 1787 69 

The reports made by him upon this subject reached London 
about a month before the return of the " Boreas ; " but the war 
scare, and the urgent call upon all departments of the Navy to 
mobilize the available force, prevented any immediate steps 
being taken. His letters were acknowledged, and the inten- 
tion expressed to investigate the matter, but nothing more was 
then done. In October, however, the Prussian troops occupied 
Amsterdam, reinstating the Stadtholder in all his privileges, 
and restoring to power the partisans of Great Britain ; while 
France remained passive, her power for external action para- 
lyzed by the dying convulsions of the monarchy. The curtain 
had just risen upon the opening scene in the great drama of 
the Eevolution, — the first Assembly of Notables. Warlike 
preparations consequently ceased, and on the 30th of Novem- 
ber, 1787, the cruise of the " Boreas " came to an end. 

It was during this last month of servitude, and immediately 
before quitting the ship, that Nelson is said to have used the 
vehement expressions of discontent with " an ungrateful ser- 
vice," recorded by his biographers, concluding with his resolve 
to go at once to London and resign his commission. In the 
absence of the faintest trace, in his letters, of dissatisfaction 
with the duty to which the ship was assigned, it is rea- 
sonable to attribute this exasperation to his soreness under 
the numerous reprimands he had received, — a feeling which 
plainly transpires in some of his replies, despite the forms of 
official respect that he scrupulously observed. Even in much 
later days, when his distinguished reputation might have 
enabled him to sustain with indifference this supercilious 
rudeness, he winced under it with over-sensitiveness. "Do 
not, my dear lord," he wrote to Earl Spencer a year after the 
battle of the Nile, "let the Admiralty write harshly to me 

— my generous soul cannot bear it, being conscious it is 
entirely unmerited." This freedom of censure, often felt by 
him to be undeserved, or at least excessive, and its sharp 
contrast with the scanty recognition of his unwearied efforts, 

— of whose value he himself was by no means forgetful, 

— though not unusual in the experience of officers, are quite 
sufficient to account for the sense of neglect and unjust treat- 
ment by which he was then outraged. This feeling was prob- 
ably accentuated, also, by a renewal of the legal persecution 



70 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



which had been begun in the West Indies; for towards the 
end of the year he received formal notice of suits being insti- 
tuted ao-ainst him for the seizure of the American vessels, and 
it is likely enough that some intimation of what was coming 
reached him before leaving the "Boreas." Scanty thanks, 
liberal blame, and the prospect of an expensive lawsuit based 
upon his ofl&cial action, constituted, for a poor man lately 
married, causes of disturbance which might well have upset 
his equanimity. 

Lord Howe, who was then at the head of the Admiralt}', 
though formal and unbending in outward bearing, was a just 
and kind man, and one fully appreciative of professional 
worth. A mutual friend acquainted him with Nelson's irri- 
tation, and Howe wrote a private letter asking that he would 
call upon him as soon as he came to town. Though quick to 
resent, Nelson was easily soothed by attention and pleased by 
compliment, even when it rose to flattery, — which Howe's 
was not likely to do. A short interview gave the First Lord 
a clearer idea than he before had of the extent, value, and 
wholly voluntary character of the services rendered by the 
young captain in the West Indies; and he indicated the com- 
pleteness of his satisfaction by offering to present him to the 
King, which was accordingly done at the next levee. George 
III. received him graciously; and the resentment of Nelson, 
whose loyalty was of the most extreme type, melted away in 
the sunshine of royal favor. 

Thus reconciled to the service, and convinced, as in his less 
morbid moods he often said, that gratitude and honor, though 
long deferred, were sure to follow upon steadfast performance 
of duty, he speedily renewed his efforts to bring to light the 
fraiids practised in the colonies. His letters on the subject to 
Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister, had been turned over to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. George Eose, and upon the 
latter Nelson now called. Eose received him at first with 
that courteous nonchalance which is the defensive armor of 
the beset official, — the name of his visitor, and the business 
with which it was connected, had for the moment slipped his 
mind. Nelson's mastery of his subject, however, and his 
warmth in it, soon roused the attention of his hearer, who, 
being then pressed for time, asked to see him again the next 



MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 71 



day, stipulating only that the interview should be early, 
before office hours. "It cannot be too early for me," re- 
plied Nelson, whose habit, in Ids career as admiral, was to 
get through his correspondence before eight o'clock, — "six 
o'clock, if you please." 

The arrangement was so made, and the consequent meeting 
lasted from six to nine the next morning. Of its general 
nature and results we have an authentic outline, given in 
later years to Nelson's biographers by Rose, who became, and 
to the last remained, his warm personal friend. The conver- 
sation ranged, apparently, over all the chief occurrences in 
the West Indies during the cruise of the "Boreas," including 
both the naval frauds and the contraband trade. The breadth 
and acuteness of Nelson's intellect have been too- much over- 
looked, in the admiration excited by his unusually grand 
moral endowments of resolution, dash, and fearlessness of 
responsibility. Though scarcely what could be called an 
educated man, he was one of close and constant observation, 
thereby gaining a great deal of information ; and to the use 
of this he brought a practical sagacity, which coped with the 
civil or political questions placed before it, for action^ much 
as it did with military questions — for, after all, good gen- 
eralship, on its intellectual side, is simply the application, to 
the solution of a military problem, of a mind naturally gifted 
therefor, and stored with experience, either personal or of 
others. As a strategist and tactician. Nelson made full proof 
of high native endowments, of wisdom garnered through 
fruitful study and meditation, and of clear insight into the 
determining conditions of the various military situations with 
which he had to deal. To Mr. Rose, the young captain of 
barely thirty years displayed a precise knowledge of several 
political subjects, connected with the commerce of the coun- 
try, that would not naturally come under his notice as an 
officer, and which therefore the mere seaman would probably 
not have imbibed. Not only so, but his suggestions for deal- 
ing practically with the interests at stake were so judicious, 
that Rose, a valued associate of Pitt and intimately ac- 
quainted with the financial measures of that brilliant admin- 
istrator, complimented him warmly upon the justice and 
correctness of his views, the result, as they were, of reflection 



72 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

based upon a mastery of the data involved. With Nelson's 
consent, he undertook to lay them before the prime minister, 
as the direct testimony of a singularly competent first-hand 
observer. 

It is to be noted, however, of Nelson, that this accuracy 
of mental perception, this power of penetrating to the root 
of a matter, disregarding unessential details and fastening 
solely on decisive features, was largely dependent upon the 
necessity laid upon him for action; which is j^robably equiva- 
lent to saying that it was usually elicited by a sobering 
sense of responsibility. In his letters and despatches may 
be found many Avild guesses, inconsistent from week to week, 
colored by changing moods and humors, — the mere passing 
comments of a mind off guard, — the records of evanescent 
impressions as numerous, fickle, and unfounded as tliose of 
the most ordinary mortal. It is when urgency presses and 
danger threatens, when the need for action comes, that his 
mental energies are aroused, and he begins to speak, as it 
were, ex cathedra. Then the unsubstantial haze rolls away, 
and the solid features of the scene one by one appear, until, 
amid all the unavoidable uncertainties of imperfect infor- 
mation, it becomes plain that the man has a firm grasp upon 
the great landmarks by which he must guide his course. 
Like the blind, who at first saw men as trees walking, and 
then saw everything clearly, so Eis mental illumination gradu- 
ally reduces confusion to order, and from perplexity evolves 
correct decision. But what shall be said of those flashes of 
insight, as at Cape St. Vincent, elicited in a moment, as by 
the stroke of iron on rock, where all the previous processes 
of ordered thought and labored reasoning are condensed into 
one vivid inspiration, and transmuted without a pause into 
instant heroic action ? Is that we call " genius " purely a 
mystery, of which our only account is to give it a name ? Or 
is it true, as Napoleon said, that '' on the field of battle the 
happiest inspiration is often but a recollection" ? 

From Eose Nelson went to the Comptroller of the Navy, 
Sir Charles Middleton, who afterwards, as Lord Barbara, sent 
him forth to Trafalgar. Middleton had replied promptly to 
the first report of the fraudulent transactions, giving as- 
surance of his readiness to act, and urging that all the 



CONTEST WITH FRAUDS 73 

iiiformatiou possible should be secured, as lie feared that the 
allegations, were substantially true. He now showed the 
instructions of the Navy Board, under which its colonial 
employees acted, to Nelson, who said that, if honestly fol- 
lowed, they must prevent the unlawful practices ; but that 
he believed they were habitually violated, and that he him- 
self, though senior officer on the station, had never before 
seen the instructions. This failure to intrust supervision to 
the one person upon whom all responsibility should ulti- 
mately have rested, practically neutralized the otherwise 
laudable methods prescribed by the Board. It was simply 
another instance of the jealousy between the civil and mili- 
tary branches of the naval organization, which, as is well 
known, resulted in constant strained relations between the 
Admiralty and the Naval Commissioners, until the latter 
Board was at last abolished. 

It is, fortunately, unnecessary to follow farther this dreary 
record of old-time dishonesty. Nelson continued to interest 
himself stremiously in the matter for two years after his 
return to England, both by letter and interview with persons 
in authority. His own position and influence were too in- 
significant to effect anything, except by moving the home 
officials, whose administration was compromised and embar- 
rassed by the malpractices of their representatives. Though 
up-hill work, it was far from fruitless. "His representa- 
tions," said Mr. Rose, in a memorandum furnished to his 
biographers, "were all attended to, and every step which he 
recommended was adopted. He thus put the investigation 
into a proper course ; which ended in the detection and pun- 
ishment of some of the parties whose conduct was complained 
of." The broad result appears to have been that the guilty 
for the most part escaped punishment, unless, indeed, some 
of them lost their positions, of which no certain information 
exists ; but the corrupt combination was broken up, and 
measures were adopted to prevent the recurrence of the same 
iniquities. Upon Nelson himself the effect was twofold. 
His energy and intelligence could not fail to impress the 
powerful men with whom he was in this way brought into 
contact. The affair increased his reputation, and made him 
more widely known than as a simple captain in the Navy he 



74 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

would otherwise have been. As the various public Boards 
whose money had been stolen realized the amovuit of the 
thefts, and the extent of the conspiracy to rob the Govern- 
ment, they felt their obligations to him, and expressed them 
in formal, but warm, letters of thanks. On tlie other hand, 
the principal culprits had command of both money and in- 
fluence; and by means of these, as so often happens, they 
not only impeded inquiry, but, according to Southey, who 
wrote not very long after the events, " succeeded in raising 
prejudices against ISTelson at the Board of Admiralty which 
it was many years before he could subdue." Clarke and 
M'Arthur make the same assertion. 

That these prejudices did at one time exist is beyond 
doubt, and that they should have been fostered by this 
means is perfectly in keeping with common experience. 
Such intrigues, liowever, work in the dark and by in- 
direction ; it is not often easy to trace their course. The 
independence and single-mindedness with which Nelson fol- 
lowed his convictions, and the outspoken frankness with 
which he expressed his views and feelings, not improbably 
gave a handle to malicious misrepresentation. His known 
intimacy with Prince William Henry, upon whose favor he 
to some extent relied, was also more likely to do him harm 
than good ; and he entertained for the royal captain pre- 
possessions not far removed from partisanship, at a time 
when the prince avowed himself not a friend to the present 
minister. " Amidst that variety of business Avhich demanded 
his attention on his return to England," say his biographers, 
"he failed not, by every means in his power, to fulfil the 
promise which he had made to his Royal Highness Prince 
William of counteracting whatever had been opposed to the 
merited reputation of his illustrious pupil, and to the friend- 
ship they had invariably preserved for each other." It was 
a clifficult task. Opinionated and headstrong as the King, 
his father, the young man was an uneasy subordinate to the 
Admiralty, and made those above him realize that he was 
full as conscious of his personal rank as of his official posi- 
tion as a captain in the Navy. It was, indeed, this self- 
assertive temperament that afterwards frustrated liis natural 
ambition to be the active head of the service. Having such 



OUT OF FAVOR AT ADMIRALTY 75 

an ally, there is something ominous for Nelson's own pros- 
pects to tind him writing in evident sympathy: "The great 
folks above now see he will not be a cypher, therefore many 
of the rising people must submit to act subordinate to him, 
which is not so palatable; and I think a Lord of the Ad- 
miralty is hurt to see him so able, after what he has said 
about him. He has certainly not taken a leaf out of his 
book, for he is steady in his command and not violent." 
Upon this follows, " He has wrote Lord Hood what I cannot 
but approve," — a sentence unquestionably vague, but which 
sounds combative. Nelson had already felt it necessary to 
caution the prince to be careful in the choice of those to 
whom he told his mind. 

In fact, at the time when the letter just quoted was Avritten, 
the conduct of the prince had been such as necessarily, and 
not wholly unjustly, to prejudice an officer who displayed 
marked partisanship for him, such as certainly was indicated 
by Nelson's expressions. He had brought his ship from New- 
foundland to Ireland in flat disobedience of orders, issued by 
the commander of the station, to go to Quebec. When this 
action became known to the Admiralty by his arrival at Cork, 
in December, 1787, it was at once reported to the King, who 
himself directed that the prince should proceed to Plymouth 
with his ship, should remain within the limits of the port for 
as many months as he had been absent from his station, and 
should then be sent back to Halifax. The Prince of Wales, 
afterwards George IV., who was already at variance with the 
King, took advantage of this flagrant breach of discipline to 
flaunt his opposition before the world. In company with his 
second brother, the Duke of York, he went down to Plymouth, 
and paid a ceremonious visit to Prince William on board his 
ship. The round of festivities necessitated by their presence 
emphasized the disagreement between the sovereign and the 
heir to the throne, and drew to it public attention. Immedi- 
ately after this, in January, 1788, Nelson also visited the 
prince, having been summoned by him from London. He 
could, indeed, scarcely decline, nor was he at all the man to 
turn his back on a friend in difficulty, but, in his fight against 
corruption, the matter could scarcely fail to be represented by 
his opponents under the worst light to the King, to whom 



70 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

corruption was less odious than insubordination. If, in con- 
versation, Nelson uttered such expressions as he wrote to his 
friend Locker, he had only himself to blame for the disfavor 
which followed ; for, to a naval officer, the prince's conduct 
should have appeared absolutely indefensible. In the course 
of the same year the King became insane, and the famous 
struggle about the Kegency took place. The prince had mean- 
time returned to America, in accordance with his orders, and 
by the time he again reached England the King had recovered. 
He could, therefore, have refrained from any indication of his 
own sympathies ; but instead of this he openly associated 
himself with the party of the Prince of Wales, whose course 
throughout, when it became known to his father, had bitterly 
displeased the latter, and accentuated the breach between them. 
At a banquet given by the Spanish ambassador in celebration 
of the King's recovery, the three princes sat at a table separate 
from the rest of the royal family. A formal reconciliation 
took place in September, 1789; but the Duke of Clarence, as 
he had then become, continued attached to the Prince of 
Wales's clique. Those who know how party considerations 
influenced naval appointments at that time, wall in these facts 
find at least a partial explanation of the cloud which then 
hung over Nelson. 

Lord Chatham, brother of the minister to whom Prince 
William was not a friend, became head of the Admiralty in 
July, 1788, and so remained until after the war with France 
began in 1793. With him was associated Lord Hood, between 
whom and Nelson there arose Avhat the latter called "a dif- 
ference of opinion," which led to a cessation of "familiar 
correspondence. " The exact date at which this occurred does 
not appear, but it was probably before May, 1790 ; for Hood 
refused to use his influence to get Nelson a ship, in the arma- 
ment which was then ordered on account of a difficulty with 
Spain, whereas eighteen months before he had assured him 
that in case of hostilities he need not fear not having a good 
ship. This refusal was the more marked, because ''almost 
the whole service was then called out." On the same occasion, 
Nelson wrote, " he made a speech never to be effaced from my 
memory, viz. : that the King was impressed with an unfavour- 
able opinion of me." Knowing Nelson's value as an officer as 



UNPLEASANT CIRCUMSTANCES 77 

well as Hood did, there can scarcely remain a doubt that some 
serious indiscretion, real or imagined, must have caused this 
alienation ; but of what it was there is no trace, unless in his 
evident siding with the prince, who was then out of favor with 
both the King and the administration. 

The five years — from 1788 to 1792 inclusive — intervening 
between the cruise of the "Boreas " and the outbreak of war 
with the French Republic, were thus marked by a variety of 
unpleasant circumstances, of which the most disagreeable, to 
a man of Nelson's active temperament, was the apparently 
fixed resolve of the authorities to deny him employment. He 
was harassed, indeed, by the recurring threats of prosecution 
for the West India seizures ; but both the Admiralty and the 
Treasury agreed that he should be defended at the expense of 
the Crown, — a fact which tends to show that his subsequent 
disfavor arose from some other cause than disapproval of his 
official action, however some incidents may have been misrep- 
resented. On its private side, his life during this period seems 
to have been happy, though uneventful ; but in the failure of 
children he was deprived, both then and afterwards, of that 
sweetest of interests, continuous yet ever new in its gradual 
unfolding, which brings to the most monotonous existence its 
daily tribute of novelty and incident. The fond, almost rap- 
turous, expressions with which he greeted the daughter after- 
wards born to him out of wedlock, show the blank in his home, 
— none the less real because not consciously realized. 

The lack of stimulus to his mind from his surroundings at 
this time is also manifested by the fewness of his letters. But 
thirty remain to show his occupation during the five years, and 
seventeen of these are purely official in character. From the 
year 1791 no record survives. His wife being with him, one 
line of correspondence was thereby closed ; but even to his 
brother, and to his friend Locker, he finds nothing to write. 
For the ordinary country amusements and pursuits of the 
English gentry he had scant liking ; and, barring the occasional 
worry over his neglect by the Admiralty, there was little else 
to engage his attention. The first few months after his release 
from the "Boreas" were spentin the West of England, chiefly 
at Bath, for the recovery of Mrs. iSTelson's health as well as 
his own ; but toward the latter part of 1788 the young couple 



78 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

went to live with his father at the parsonage of Burnham 
Thorpe, and there made their home until he was again called 
into active service. "It is extremely interesting," say his 
biographers, " to contemplate this great man, when thus re- 
moved from the busy scenes in which he had borne so distin- 
guished a part to the remote village of Burnham Thorpe;" 
but the interest seems by their account to be limited to the 
energy with which he dug in the garden, or, frdm sheer want 
of something to do, reverted to the bird-nesting of his boyhood. 
His favorite amusement, we are told, was coursing, and he once 
shot a partridge ; but his habit of carrying his gun at full cock, 
and firing as soon as a bird rose, without bringing the piece to 
his shoulder, made him a dangerous companion in a shooting- 
party. His own account is somewhat different : " Shoot I 
cannot, therefore I have not taken out a license ; but notwith- 
standing the neglect I have met with I am happy ;"and again, 
to his brother, he says: "It was not my intention to have gone 
to the coursing meeting, for, to say the truth, I have rarely 
escaped a wet jacket and a violent cold; besides, to me, even 
the ride to the Smee is longer than any pleasure I find in the 
sport will compensate for." The fact is that Nelson cared for 
none of these things, and the only deduction of real interest 
from his letters at this time is the absolute failure of his home 
life and affections to content his aspirations, — the emj^tiness 
both of mind and heart, which caused his passionate eagerness 
for external employment to fill the void. Earnestness appears 
only when he is brooding over the slight with which he was 
treated, and the resultant thwarting of his career. For both 
mind and heart the future held in store for him the most en- 
grossing emotions, but it did not therefore bring him happiness. 
Of his frames of mind during tliis period of neglect and 
disfavor, his biographers give a very strongly colored picture, 
for which, it is to be presumed, they drew upon contemporary 
witnesses that were to them still accessible. " With a morti- 
fied and dejected spirit, he looked forward to a continuance 
of inactivity and neglect. . . . During this interval of dis- 
appointment and mortification, his latent ambition would at 
times burst forth, and despise all restraint. At others, a 
sudden melancholy seemed to overshadow his noble faculties, 
and to affect his temper ; at those moments the remonstrances 



A STORMY AND ANXIOUS PERIOD 79 

of his wife and venerable father alone could calm the tempest 
of his passions." That Nelson keenly felt the cold indiffer- 
ence he now underwent, is thoroughly in keeping with the 
sensitiveness to censure, expressed or implied, which his cor- 
respondence frequently betrays, while his frail organization 
and uncertain health would naturally entail periods oP depres- 
sion or nervous exasperation ; but the general tenor of his 
letters, few as they at this time were, shows rather dignified 
acceptance of a treatment he had not merited, and a steady 
resolve not to waver in his readiness to serve his country, nor 
to cease asking an opportunity to do so. Many years later, at 
a time of still more sickening suspense, he wrote: ''I am in 
truth half dead, but what man can do shall be done, — I am 
not made to despair ; " and now, according to a not improbable 
story, he closed an application for employment with the 
words, " If your Lordships should be pleased to appoint me 
to a cockle boat, I shall feel grateful." Hood, whose pupil he 
in a sense was, and who shared his genius, said of himself, 
when under a condition of enforced inactivity : " This proves 
very strongly the different frames of men's minds ; some are 
full of anxiety, impatience, and apprehension, while others, 
under similar circumstances, are perfectly cool, tranquil, and 
indifferent." 

The latter half of the year 1792 was marked by the rapid 
progress in France of the political distemper, which was so 
soon to cuhuinate in the worst excesses of the Revolution. 
The quick succession of symptoms, each more alarming than 
the other, — the suspension of the royal power at the tumult- 
uous bidding of a mob, the September massacres, the abolition 
of royalty, the aggressive character of the National Convention 
shown by the decrees of November 19 and December 15, — 
roused the apprehensions of most thoughtful men throughout 
Europe ; and their concern was increased by the growing 
popular effervescence in other countries than France. The 
British cabinet, as was natural, shifted more slowly than did 
the irresponsible members of the community ; nor could Pitt 
lightly surrender his strong instinctive prepossessions in 
favor of peace, with the continuance of which was identified 
the exercise of his own best powers. 

During this stormy and anxious period, Nelson shared the 



80 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

feelings of his day and class. It is noteworthy, however, that, 
in regarding the perils of the time, he was no mere panic- 
monger, but showed the same discriminating carefulness of 
observation that had distinguished him as captain of the 
"Boreas," and had elicited the admiration of Mr. Eose. 
Strenuous and even bigoted royalist as he always was, sat- 
isfied of the excellence of the British Constitution, and con- 
demning utterly the proceedings of the more or less seditious 
societies then forming throughout the kingdom, he yet rec- 
ognized the substantial grievances of the working-men, as 
evident in the district immediately under his eye. The sym- 
pathetic qualities wliich made him, fortune's own favorite in 
his profession, keenly alive to the hardships, neglect, and 
injustice undergone by the common seaman, now engaged 
him to set forth the sad lot of the ill-paid rural peasantry. 
In his letters to the Duke of Clarence, he on the one hand 
strongly blames the weakness and timidity of the justices and 
country gentlemen, in their attitude towards the abettors of 
lawlessness^ but, on the other, he dwells upon the sufferings 
of the poor, prepares a careful statement of their earnings and 
unavoidable expenses, and insists upon the necessity of the 
living wage. The field laborers, he said, " do not want 
loyalty, many of their superiors, in many instances, might 
have imitated their conduct to advantage ; but hunger is a 
sharp thorn, and they are not only in want of food sufficient, 
but of clothes and firing." 

Under the threatening outlook, he considers that every 
individual will soon " be called forth to show himself ; " and 
for his own part, he writes on the 3d of November, he sees no 
way so proper as asking for a ship. But, even at that late 
moment, neither Pitt nor his associates had abandoned the 
hope of peace, and this, as well as other applications of I>I"el- 
son's, received only a formal acknowledgment without encour- 
agement. Eoused, however, by the Convention's decree of 
November 19, which extended the succor of France to all 
people who should wish to recover their liberty, and charged 
the generals of the republic to make good the offer with the 
forces under their command, the ministry decided to abandon 
their guarded attitude ; and their new resolution was con- 
firmed by the reception, on the 28th of November, of deputa- 



APPOINTED TO THE "AGAMEMNON" 81 

tions from British revolutionary societies at the bar of the 
Convention, on which occasion the president of the latter 
affected to draw a dividing line between the British govern- 
ment and the British nation. On the 1st of December the 
militia was called out by proclamation, and Parliament sum- 
moned to meet on the 15th of the month. On the latter day 
the Convention put forth another decree, announcing in the 
most explicit terms its purpose to overthrow all existing gov- 
ernments in countries where the Republican armies could 
penetrate. Pitt now changed his front with an instantaneous- 
ness and absoluteness which gave the highest proof of his 
capacity as a leader of men. It was not so much that Avar 
was then determined, as that the purpose was formed, once 
for all, to accept the challenge contained in the French decree, 
unless France would discontinue her avowed course of aggres- 
sion. Orders were immediately given to increase largely the 
number of ships of war in commission. 

When danger looms close at hand, the best men, if known, 
are not left in the cold shade of official disfavor. " Post 
nubila Phoebus," was the expression of Nelson, astonished for 
a rarity into Latin by the suddenness with which the sun now 
burst uj)on him through the clouds. '* The Admiralty so 
smile upon me, that really I am as much surprised as when 
they frowned." On the 6th of January, 1793, the First Lord, 
with many apologies for previous neglect, promised to give 
him a seventy-four-gun ship as soon as it was in his power to 
do so, and that meanwhile, if he chose to take a sixty-four, he 
could have one as soon as she was ready. On the 30th he was 
appointed to the "Agamemnon,'' of the latter rate. Within 
the preceding fortnight Louis XVI. had been beheaded, and 
the French ambassador ordered to leave England. On Feb- 
ruary 1, 1793, two days after Nelson's orders were issued, the 
Republic declared war against Great Britain and Holland. 



CHAPTER III. 

Kelson's Departure from England in the "Agamemnon." — Ser- 
vices IN THE Mediterranean until the Recovery of Toulon by 
THE French. — Lord Hood in Command. 

Eebruaey-Decembek, 1793. Age, 34. 

"VTELSON'S j)age in history covers a little more than 
AAI twelve years, from February, 1793, to October, 1805. 
Its opening coincides with the moment when the wild passions 
of the French Revolution, still at fiercest heat, and which had 
hitherto raged like flame uncontrolled, operative only for 
destruction, were being rapidly mastered, guided, and regu- 
lated for efficient work, by the terrors of the Revolutionary 
Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety. In the object 
to which these tremendous forces were now about to be 
applied lay the threat to the peace of Europe, which aroused 
Great Britain to action, and sent into the field her yet un- 
known champion from the Korfolk parsonage. The represen- 
tatives of the French jjeople had imparted to the original 
movement of their nation, — which aimed only at internal 
reforms, however radical, — a new direction, of avowed pur- 
poseful aggression upon all political institutions exterior to, 
and differing from, their own. This became the one charac- 
teristic common to the successive forms of government, which 
culminated in the pure military despotism of Napoleon. 

To beat back that spirit of aggression was the mission of 
Nelson. Therein is found the true significance of his career, 
which mounts higher and higher in strenuous effort and 
gigantic achievement, as the blast of the Revolution swells 
fiercer and stronger under the mighty impulse of the great 
Corsican. At each of the momentous crises, so far removed 
in time and place, — at the Nile, at Copenhagen,- at Trafalgar, 
— as the unfolding drama of the age reveals to the onlooker 
the schemes of the arch-planner about to touch success, ove^^ 



SIGNIFICANCE OF NELSON'S CAREEK 83 

against Napoleon rises ever Kelson ; and as the latter in the 
hour of victory drops upon the stage where he has played so 
chief a part, his task is seen to be accomplished, his triumph 
secured. In the very act of dying he has dealt the foe a blow 
from which recovery is impossible. Moscow and Waterloo 
are the inevitable consequences of Trafalgar ; as the glories of 
that day were but the lit and assured ending of the illus- 
trious course which was begun upon the quarter-deck of the 
"•■ Agamemnon." 

With the exception of the " Victory," under whose flag he 
fell after two years of arduous, heartbreaking uncertainties, 
no ship has such intimate association with the career and 
name of Nelson as has the "Agamemnon." And this is but 
natural, for to her he was the captain, solely, simply, and 
entirely; identified with her alone, glorying in her excellences 
and in her achievements, one in purpose and in spirit with 
her ofiicers and seamen ; sharing their hopes, their dangers, 
and their triumphs ; quickening them with his own ardor, 
moulding them into his own image, until vessel and crew, as 
one living organism, reflected in act the heroic and unyielding 
energy that inspired his feeble frame. Although, for a brief 
and teeming period, he while in command of her controlled 
also a number of smaller vessels on detached service, it was 
not until after he had removed to another ship that he became 
the squadron-commander, whose relations to the vessel on 
which he himself dwelt were no longer immediate, nor 
differed, save in his bodily presence, from those he bore to 
others of the same division. A personality such as Nelson's 
makes itself indeed felt throughout its entire sphere of action, 
be that large or small ; but, withal, diffusion contends in vain 
with the inevitable law that forever couples it with slackening 
power, nor was it possible even for him to lavish on the 
various units of a fleet, and on the diverse conflicting claims 
of a great theatre of war, the same degree of interest and 
influence that he concentrated upon the "Agamemnon," and 
upon the brilliant though contracted services through which 
he carried her. Bonds such as these are not lightly broken, 
and to the " Agamemnon " Nelson clave for three long years 
and more, persistently refusing larger ships, until the ex- 
hausted hulk could no longer respond to the demands of her 



84 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

masters, and separation became inevitable. When he quitted 
her, at the moment of her departure for England, it was simply 
a question whether he would abandon the Mediterranean, and 
the prospect of a great future there opening before him, or 
sever a few weeks earlier a companionship which must in any 
event end upon her arrival home. 

There is yet another point of view from which his command 
of the " Agamemnon " is seen to hold a peculiar relation to 
Nelson's story. This was the period in which expectation 
passed into fulfilment, when development, long arrested by 
unpropitious circumstances, resumed its outward progress 
under the benign influence of a favoring environment, and the 
bud, whose rare promise had long been noted by a few dis- 
cerning eyes, unfolded into the brilliant flower, destined in the 
magnificence of its maturity to draw the attention of a world. 
To the fulness of his glorious course these three years were 
what the days of early manhood are to ripened age ; and they 
are marked by the same elasticity, hopefulness, and sanguine 
looking to the future that characterize youth, before illusions 
vanish and even success is found to disappoint. Happiness 
was his then, as at no other time before or after ; for the sur- 
rounding conditions of enterprise, of difiiculties to be over- 
come, and dangers to be met, were in complete correspondence 
with those native powers that had so long struggled painfully 
for room to exert themselves. His health revived, and his 
very being seemed to expand in this congenial atmosphere, 
which to him was as life from the dead. As with untiring 
steps he sped onward and upward, — counting naught done 
while aught remained to do, forgetting what was behind as he 
pressed on to what was before, — the ardor of pursuit, the 
delight of achievement, the joy of the giant running his course, 
sustained in him that glow of animation, that gladness in the 
mere fact of existence, physical or moral, in which, if any- 
where, this earth's content is found. Lack of recognition, 
even, wrung from him only the undaunted words : " Never 
mind ! some day I will have a gazette of my own." Not till 
his dreams were realized, till aspiration had issued in the 
completest and most brilliant triumph ever wrought upon the 
seas, and he had for his gazette the loud homage of every 
mouth in Europe, — not till six months after the battle of the 



COMMAND OF THE "AGAMEMNON" 85 

Nile, — did Nelson write : " There is no true happiness in this 
life, and in my present state I could quit it with a smile. My 
only wish is to sink with honour into the grave." 

The preparation of the Mediterranean fleet, to which the 
"Agamemnon" was assigned, was singularly protracted, and 
in the face of a well-ordered enemy the delay must have led 
to disastrous results. Nelson himself joined his ship at 
Chatham on the 7th of February, a week after his orders were 
issued ; but not until the 16th of March did she leave the 
dockyard, and then only for Sheerness, where she remained 
four weeks longer. By that time it seems probable, from 
remarks in his letters, that the material equipment of the 
vessel was complete ; but until the 14th of April she remained 
over a hundred men short of her complement. " Yet, I think," 
wrote Nelson, " that we shall be far from ill-manned, even 
if the rest be not so good as they ought to be." Mobilization 
in those days had not been perfected into a science, even in 
theory, and the difficulty of raising crews on the outbreak of 
war was experienced by all nations, but by none more than by 
Great Britain. Her wants were greatest, and for supply de- 
pended upon a merchant service scattered in all quarters of 
the globe. " Men are very hard to be got," Nelson said to his 
brother, " and without a press I have no idea that our fleet 
can be manned." It does not appear that this crude and 
violent, yet unavoidable, method was employed for the " Aga- 
memnon," except so far as her crew was completed from the 
guard-ship. Dependence was placed upon the ordinary wiles 
of the recruiting-sergeant, and upon Nelson's own popularity 
in the adjacent counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, from which 
the bulk of his ship's company was actually drawn. " I have 
sent out a lieutenant and four midshipmen," he writes to 
Locker, "to get men at every seaport in Norfolk, and to 
forward them to Lynn and Yarmouth ; my friends in York- 
shire and the North tell me they will send what men they can 
lay hands on ; " but at the saine time he hopes that Locker, 
then Commander-in-chief at the Nore, will not turn away any 
who from other districts may present themselves for the 
"Agamemnon." Coming mainly from the same neighborhood 
gave to the crew a certain homogeneousness of character, 
affording ground for appeal to local pride, a most powerful 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



incentive in moments of difficulty and emulation; and this 
feeling was enhanced by the thought that their captain too 
was a Norfolk man. To one possessing the sympathetic 
qualities of Nelson, who so readily shared the emotions and 
gained the affections of his associates, it was easy to bind into 
a living whole the units animated by this common sentiment. 

His step-son, Josiah Nisbet, at this time about thirteen 
years old, now entered the service as a midshipman, and 
accompanied him on board the "Agamemnon." The oncoming 
of a great war naturally roused to a yet higher pitch the im- 
pulse towards the sea, which in all generations has stirred the 
blood of English boys. Of these, Nelson, using his captain's 
privilege, received a number as midshipmen upon his quarter- 
deck, among them several from the sons of neighbors and 
friends, and therefore, like the crew, Norfolk lads. It is told 
that to one, whose father he knew to be a strong Whig, of the 
party which in the past few years had sympathized with the 
general current of the French Revolution, he gave the fol- 
lowing pithy counsels for his guidance in professional life : 
"First, you must always implicitly obey orders, without 
attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting their 
propriety; secondly, you must consider every man as your 
enemy who speaks ill of your king ; and thirdly, you must hate 
a Frenchman as you do the devil." On the last two items 
Nelson's practice was in full accord with his precept ; but to 
the first, his statement of which, sound enough in the general, 
is open to criticism as being too absolute, he was certainly not 
obedient. Not to form an opinion is pushing the principle of 
subordination to an indefensible extreme, even for a junior 
officer, though the caution not to express it is wise, as well as 
becoming to the modesty of youth. Lord Howe's advice to 
Codrington, to watch carefully all that passed and to form his 
own conclusions, but to keep them to himself, was in every 
respect more reasonable and profitable. But in fact this dictum 
of Nelson's was simply another instance of hating the French 
as he did the devil. The French were pushing independence 
and private judgment to one extreme, and he instinctively 
adopted the other. 

It was not till near the end of April that the " Agamem- 
non " finally left the Thames, anchoring at Spithead on the 



COMMAND OF THE "AGAMEMNON" 87 

28th of that month. Still the fleet which Lord Hood was to 
command was not ready. While awaiting her consorts, the 
ship made a short cruise in the Channel, and a few days later 
sailed as one of a division of five ships-of-the-line under 
Admiral Hothani, to occupy a station fifty to a hundred 
miles west of the Channel Islands. Nelson's disposition not 
to form any opinion of his own respecting the propriety of 
orders was thus evidenced : " What we have been sent out 
for is best known to the great folks in London : to us, it 
appears, only to hum the nation and make tools of us, for 
where we have been stationed no enemy was likely to be met 
with, or where we could protect our own trade." There can 
be no doubt that not only was the practical management of 
the Navy at this time exceedingly bad, but that no sound 
ideas even prevailed upon the subject. Hotham's squadron 
gained from neutral vessels two important pieces of informa- 
tion, — that Nantes, Bordeaux, and L'Orient were filled with 
English vessels, prizes to French cruisers ; and that the 
enemy kept eight sail-of-the-line, Avith frigates in proportion, 
constantly moving in detachments about the Bay of Biscay. 
Under the dispositions adopted by the British Admiralty, 
these hostile divisions gave, to the commerce destroying of 
the smaller depredators, a support that sufficiently accounts 
for the notorious sufferings of British trade during the open- 
ing years of the war. Nelson had no mastery of the termi- 
nology of warfare, — he never talked about strategy and little 
about tactics, — but, though without those valuable aids to 
precision of thought, he had pondered, studied, and reasoned, 
and he had, besides, what is given to few, — real genius 
and insight. Accordingly he at once pierced to the root of 
the trouble, — the enemy's squadrons, rather than the petty 
cruisers dependent upon them, to which the damage was com- 
monly attributed. " They are always at sea, and England 
not willing to send a squadron to interrupt them." But, 
while instancing this intuitive perception of a man gifted 
with rare penetration, it is necessary to guard against rash 
conclusions that might be drawn from it, and to remark that 
it by no means follows that education is unnecessary to the 
common run of men, because a genius is in advance of his 
times. It is well also to note that even in him this flash of 



88 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

insight, though unerring in its indications, lacked the defi- 
niteness of conviction which results from ordered thought. 
However accurate, it is but a glimmer, — not yet a fixed 
light. 

Hotham's division joined the main body under Lord Hood, 
off the Scilly Islands, on the 23d of May, the total force then 
consisting of eleven sail-of-the-line, with the usual smaller 
vessels. It remained cruising in that neighborhood until the 
6th of June, keeping the approaches of the Channel open for 
a homeward-bound convoy of merchantmen, which passed on 
that day. The fleet then bore up for the Straits, and on the 
14th six ships, the " Agamemnon " among them, parted com- 
pany for. Cadiz, there to till up with water, in order to avoid 
the delays which would arise if the scanty resources of Gib- 
raltar had to supply all the vessels. On the 23d this division 
left Cadiz, reaching Gibraltar the same evening ; and on the 
27th Hood, having now with him fifteen of the line, sailed 
for Toulon. 

Nelson's mind was already busy with the prospects of the 
campaign, and the various naval factors that went to make 
up the military situation. " Time must discover what we are 
going after," he writes to his brother; while to Locker he 
propounds the problem which always has perplexed the 
British mind, and still does, — how to make the French 
fight, if they are unwilling. So long as that question re- 
mains unsolved, the British government has to bear the 
uncertainties, exposure, and expense of a difiicult and pro- 
tracted defensive. "We have done nothing," he says, "and 
the same prospect appears before us : the French cannot 
come out, and we have no means of getting at them in Tou- 
lon." In "cannot come out," he alludes to the presence of 
a Spanish fleet of twenty-four ships-of-the-line. This, in 
conjunction with Hood's force, would far exceed the French 
in Toulon, which the highest estimate then placed at 
twenty-one of the line. He had, however, already measured 
the capabilities of the Spanish Navy. They have very fine 
ships, he admits, but they are shockingly manned, — so much 
so that if only the barges' crews of the six British vessels 
that entered Cadiz, numbering at the most seventy-five to a 
hundred men, but all picked, could have got on board one of 



COMMAND OF THE "AGAMEMNON" 89 

their first-rates, he was certain they could have captured her, 
although her ship's company numbered nearly a thousand. 
" If those we are to meet in the Mediterranean are no better 
manned," he continues, " much service cannot be expected of 
them." The prediction proved true, for no sooner did Hood 
find the Spanish admiral than the latter informed him he 
must go to Cartagena, having nineteen hundred sick in his 
fleet. The officer who brought this message said it was no 
wonder they were sickly, for they had been sixty days at sea. 
This excited Nelson's derision — not unjustly. "From the 
circumstance of having been longer than that time at sea, do 
we attribute our getting healthy. It has stamped with me 
the extent of their nautical abilities : long may they remain 
in their present state." The last sentence reveals his intui- 
tive appreciation of the fact that the Spain of that day could 
in no true sense be the ally of Great Britain ; for, at the 
moment he penned the wish, the impotence or defection of 
their allies would leave the British fleet actually inferior to 
the enemy in those waters. He never forgot these impres- 
sions, nor the bungling efforts of the Spaniards to form a 
line of battle. Up to the end of his life the prospect of a 
Spanish war involved no military anxieties, but only the 
prospect of more prize money. 

Among the various rumors of that troubled time, there 
came one that the French were fitting their ships with forges 
to bring their shot to a red heat, and so set fire to the 
enemy's vessel in which they might lodge. Nelson was 
promptly ready with a counter and quite adequate tactical 
move. " This, if true," he wrote, " I humbly conceive would 
have been as well kept secret ; but as it is known, we must 
take care to get so close that their red shots may go through 
both sides, when it will not matter whether they are hot or 
cold." This sentence is among the most characteristic oc- 
curring at this period in Nelson's correspondence ; indicative 
of the continuous mental activity which, throughout his 
career, sought to anticipate difficulties, and to devise means 
of meeting them. 

On the 14th of July Nelson notes that the fleet had re- 
ceived orders to consider Marseilles and Toulon as invested, 
and to take all vessels of whatever nation bound into those 



90 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ports. He at once recognized the importance of this step, 
and the accurate judgment that dictated it. The British could 
not, as he said, get at the enemy in his fortified harbor; but 
they might by this means exercise the pressure that would 
force him to come out. Undoubtedly, whether on a large or 
on a small scale, whether it concern the whole plan of a war 
or of a campaign, or merely the question of a single military 
position, the best way to compel an unwilling foe to action, 
and to spoil his waiting game which is so onerous to the 
would-be assailant, is to attack him elsewhere, to cut short his 
resources, and make his position untenable by exhaustion. 
" This has pleased us," Nelson wrote ; " if we make these red- 
hot gentlemen hungry, they may be induced to come out." 

The investment by sea of these two harbors, but especially 
of Toulon, as being an im^^ortant dockyard, was accordingly 
the opening move made by the British admiral. On the 16th 
of July he approached the 'latter port, and from that time 
until August 25 a close blockade was maintained, with the 
exception of a very few days, during which Hood took the 
fleet off Nice, and thence to Genoa, to remonstrate with that 
republic upon its supplying the south of France with grain, 
and bringing back French property under neutral papers. 
" Our being here is a farce if this trade is allowed," said 
Nelson, and rightly ; for so far as appearances then went, the 
only influence the British squadrons could exert was by cur- 
tailing the supplies of southern France. That district raised 
only grain enough for three months' consumption ; for the 
remainder of the year's food it depended almost wholly upon 
Sicily and Barbary, its communications with the interior being 
so bad that the more abundant fields of distant French prov- 
inces could not send their surplus. 

In the chaotic state in which France was then plunged, the 
utmost uncertainty prevailed as to the course events might 
take, and rumors of all descriptions were current, the wildest 
scarcely exceeding in improbability the fantastic horrors that 
actually prevailed throughout the land during these opening 
days of the Reign of Terror. The expectation that found 
most favor in the fleet was that Provence would separate 
from the rest of France, and proclaim itself an independent 
republic under the protection of Great Britain ; but few looked 



I 



COMMAND OF THE "AGAMEMNON" 91 

for the amazing result which shortly followed, in the delivery 
of Toulon by its citizens into the hands of Lord Hood. This 
Nelson attributed purely to the suffering caused by the strict- 
ness of the blockade. "At Marseilles and Toulon," wrote he 
on the 20th of August, " they are almost starving, yet noth- 
ing brings them to their senses. Although the Convention 
has denounced them as traitors, yet even these people will 
not declare for anything but Liberty and Equality." Three 
days later. Commissioners from both cities went on board 
Hood's flagship to treat for peace, upon the basis of re-estab- 
lishing the monarchy, and recognizing as king the son of Louis 
XVI. The admiral accepted the proposal, on condition that 
the port and arsenal of Toulon should be delivered to him for 
safe keeping, until the restoration of the young prince was 
effected. On the 27th of August the city ran up the white 
flag of the Bourbons, and the British fleet, together with the 
Spanish, which at this moment arrived on the scene, anchored 
in the outer port. The allied troops took possession of the 
forts commanding the harbor, while the dockyards and thirty 
ships-of-the-line were delivered to the navies. 

"The perseverance of our fleet has been great," wrote 
Nelson, " and to that only can be attributed our unexampled 
success. Not even a boat could get into Marseilles or Toulon, 
or on the coast, with provisions ; and the old saying, ' that 
hunger will tame a lion,' was never more strongly exem- 
plified." In this he deceived himself, however natural the 
illusion. The opposition of Toulon to the Paris Government 
was part of a general movement of revolt, which spread 
throughout the provinces in May and June, 1793, upon the 
violent overthrow of the Girondists in the National Conven- 
tion. The latter then proclaimed several cities outlawed, 
Toulon among them ; and the bloody severities it exercised 
were the chief determining cause of the sudden treason, the 
offspring of fear more than of hunger, — though the latter 
doubtless contributed, — which precipitated the great southern 
arsenal into the arms of the Republic's most dangerous foe. 
Marseilles fell before the Conventional troops, and the result- 
ant panic in the sister city occasioned the hasty step, which 
in less troubled moments would have been regarded with just 
horror. But in truth Nelson, despite his acute military per- 



92 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ceptions, bad not vet developed that keen political sagacity, 
the fruit of riper judgment grounded on wider information, 
which he afterwards showed. His ambition was yet limited 
to the sphere of the " Agamemnon," his horizon bounded by 
the petty round of the day's events. He rose, as yet, to no 
apprehension of the mighty crisis hanging over Europe, to no 
appreciation of the profound meanings of the opening strife. 
" I hardly think the War can last," he writes to his wife, "for 
what are we at war about ?" and again, " I think we shall be 
in England in the winter or spring." Even some months 
later, in December, before Toulon had reverted to the French, 
he is completely blind to the importance of the Mediterranean 
in the great struggle, and expresses a wish to exchange to the 
AYest Indies, " for I think our Sea War is over in these seas." 
It is probable, indeed, that in his zeal, thoroughness, and 
fidelity to the least of the duties then falling to him, is to be 
seen a surer indication of his great future than in any wider 
speculations about matters as yet too high for his position. 
The recent coolness between him and Lord Hood had been 
rapidly disappearing under the admiral's reviving apprecia- 
tion and his own aptitude to conciliation. " Lord Hood is 
very civil," he writes on more than one occasion, "I think we 
may be good friends again ; " and the offer of a seventy-four- 
gun ship in place of his smaller vessel was further proof of 
his superior's confidence. ISTelson refused the proposal. ''I 
cannot give up my ofiicers," he said, in the spirit that so en- 
deared him to his followers ; but the compliment was felt, 
and was enhanced by the admiral's approval of his motives. 
The prospective occupation of Toulon gave occasion for a yet 
more flattering evidence of the esteem in which he was held. 
As soon as the agreement with the city was completed, but 
the day before taking possession. Hood despatched him in 
haste to Oneglia, a small port on the Riviera of Genoa, and 
thence to JNaples, to seek from the latter court and that of 
Turin ^ a reinforcement of ten thousand troops to hold the 
new acquisition. The " Agamemnon " being a fast sailer 
undoubtedly contributed much to this selection ; but the char- 
acter of the commanding ofiicer could not but be considered on 

1 Turin was capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which embraced the island 
of that name and the Province of Piedmont, 



I 



COMMAND OF THE "AGAMEMNON" 93 

SO important, and in some ways delicate, a mission. " I should 
have liked to have stayed one day longer with the fleet, when 
they entered the harbour," he wrote to Mrs. Nelson, "but 
service could not be neglected for any private gratification," 
— a sentiment she had to hear pretty often, as betrothed and 
as wife, but which was no platitude on the lips of one who 
gave it constant demonstration in his acts. " Duty is the 
great business of a sea officer," he told his intended bride in 
early manhood, to comfort her and himself under a prolonged 
separation. " Thank God ! I have done my duty," was the 
spoken thought that most solaced his death hour, as his heart 
yearned towards those at home whom he should see no more. 

About this time he must have felt some touch of sympathy 
for the effeminate Spaniards, who were made ill by a sixty 
days' cruise. "All we get here," he writes, "is honour and 
salt beef. My poor fellows have not had a morsel of fresh 
meat or vegetables for near nineteen weeks ; and in that time 
I have only had my foot twice on shore at Cadiz. We are 
absolutely getting sick from fatigue." "I am here [Naples] 
with news of our most glorious and great success, but, alas! 
the fatigue of getting it has been so great that the fleet gen- 
erally, and I am sorry to say, my ship most so, are knocked 
up. Day after day, week after week, month after month, we 
have not been two gun shots from Toulon." The evident 
looseness of this statement, for the ship had only been a little 
over a month off Toulon, shows the impression the service 
had made upon his mind, for he was not prone to such 
exaggerations. "It is hardly possible," he says again, "to 
conceive the state of my ship ; I have little less than one 
hundred sick." This condition of things is an eloquent testi- 
mony to the hardships endured ; for Nelson was singularly 
successfiil, both before and after these days, in maintaining 
the health of a ship's company. His biographers say that 
during the term of three years that he commanded the 
" Boreas " in the West Indies, not a single officer or man 
died out of her whole complement, — an achievement almost 
incredible in that sickly climate ; ^ and he himself records 

1 This statement, which apparently depends upon a memoir supplied many 
years later by the first lieutenant of the "Boreas," is not strictly accurate, for 
Nelson himself, i)i a letter written shortly after her arrival in the "West Indies, 



94 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tliat in his two naonths' chase of Villeneuve, in 1805, no death 
from sickness occurred among the seven or eight thousand 
persons in the fleet. He attributed these remarkable results 
to his attention, not merely to the physical surroundings of 
the crews, but also to the constant mental stimulus and 
interest, which he aroused bj^ providing the seamen with oc- 
cupation, frequent amusements, and change of scene, thus 
keeping the various faculties in continual play, and avoiding 
the monotony which most saps health, through its deadening 
influence on the mind and spirits. 

The "Agamemnon" reached Naples on the 12th of Septem- 
ber, and remained there four days. Nelson pressed the mat- 
ter of reinforcements with such diligence, and was so heartily 
sustained by the British minister, Sir William Hamilton, that 
he obtained the promise of six thousand troops to sail at once 
under the convoy of the "Agamemnon." "I have acted for 
Lord Hood," he wrote, "with a zeal which no one could 
exceed;" and a few weeks later he says: "The Lord is very 
much pleased with my conduct about the troops at Naples, 
which I undertook without any authority whatever from him ; 
and they arrived at Toulon before his requisition reached 
Naples." It appears, therefore, that his orders were rather 
those of a despatch-bearer than of a negotiator; but that he, 
with the quick initiative he always displayed, took upon him- 
self diplomatic action, to further the known wishes of his 
superior and the common cause of England and Naples. It 
was upon this occasion that Nelson first met Lady Hamilton, 
who exercised so marked an influence over his later life ; but, 
though she was still in the prime of her singular loveliness, 
being yet under thirty, not a ripple stirred the surface of his 
soul, afterward so powerfully perturbed by this fascinating 
woman. "Lady Hamilton," he writes to his wife, "has been 
wonderfully kind and good to Josiah [his step-son]. She is a 
young woman of amiable manners, and who does honour to 
the station to which she is raised." His mind was then too 
full of what was to be done ; not as after the Nile, when, un- 
strung by reaction from the exhausting emotions of the past 

mentions that sevei-al of her sliip's coni]iany had been caiTied off by fever 
(Nicolas, voh i. p. Ill); but it can doubtless be accepted as evidence of an 
unusually healthy condition. 



MISSION TO NAPLES, 1193 95 

months, it was for the moment empty of aspiration and cloyed 
with flattery only. 

The prospect of sailing with the convoy of troops, as Avell 
as of a few days' repose for the wearied ship's company, was 
cut short by the news that a French ship of war, with some 
merchant vessels in convoy, had anchored on the Sardinian 
coast. Although there were at Naples several Neapolitan 
naval vess'els, and one Spaniard, none of them moved ; and as 
the Prime Minister sent the information to Nelson, he felt 
bound to go, though but four days in port. "Unfit as my 
ship was, 1 had nothing left for the honour of our country but 
to sail, which I did in two hours afterwards. It was necessary 
to show them what an English man-of-war would do." The 
expected enemy was not found, and, after stretching along the 
coast in a vain search, the "Agamemnon" put into Leghorn 
on the 25th of September, nine days after leaving Naples, — 
" absolutely to save my poor fellows," wrote her captain to 
his brother. But even so, he purposed staying at his new 
anchorage but three days, " for I cannot bear the thought of 
being absent from the scene of action " at Toulon. In the 
same, letter he mentions that since the 23d of April — five 
months — the ship had been at anchor only twenty days. 

The unwavering resolution and prompt decision of his char- 
acter thus crop out at every step. In Leghorn he found a 
large French frigate, which had been on the point of sailing 
when his ship came in sight. " I am obliged to keep close 
watch to take care he does not give me the slip, which he is 
inclined to do. I shall pursue him, and leave the two Courts 
[Great Britain and Tuscany] to settle the propriety of the 
measure, which I think will not be strictly regular. Have 
been up all night watching him — ready to cut the moment 
he did." The enemy, however, made no movement, and 
Nelson was not prepared to violate flagrantly the neutrality 
of the port. On the 30th of September he sailed, and on the 
5th of October rejoined Lord Hood off Toulon, where four 
thousand of the Neapolitan troops, for which he had nego- 
tiated, had already arrived. 

The high favor in which the admiral had held him ten 
years before in the West Indies, though slightly overcast by 
the coolness which arose during the intervening peace, had 



96 THE LIFE OF NELSOIif 

been rapidly regained in the course of the present campaign ; 
and the customary report of his proceedings during the six 
weeks' absence could not but confirm Hood in the assurance 
that he had now to deal with a very exceptional character, 
especially fitted for separate and responsible service. Ac- 
cordingly, from this time forward, such is the distinguishing 
feature of Nelson's career as a subordinate. He _is selected 
from among many competitors, frequently his seniors, for the 
performance of duty outside the reach of the commander-in- 
chief, but requiring the attention of one upon whose activity, 
intelligence, and readiness, the fullest dependence could be 
Xjlaced. Up -to the battle of the Nile, — in which, it must 
always be remembered, he commanded a squadron detached 
from the main fleet, and was assigned to it in deliberate pref- 
erence to two older flag-officers, — Nelson's life presents a 
series of detached commands, independent as regarded the 
local scene of operations, and his method of attaining the 
prescribed end with the force allotted to him, but dependent, 
technically, upon the distant commanders-in-chief, each of 
whom in succession, with one accord, recognized his singular 
fltness. The pithy but characteristic expression said to have 
been used by Earl St. Vincent, when asked for instructions 
about the Copenhagen expedition, — " D — n it, Nelson, send 
them to the devil your own way," — sums up accurately 
enough the confldence shown him by his superiors. He could 
not indeed lift them all to the height of his own conceptions, 
fearlessness, and enterprise ; but when they had made up their 
minds to any particular course, they were, each and all, per- 
fectly willing to intrust the execution to him. Even at Co- 
penhagen he was but second in command, though conspicuously 
first in achievement. It was not till the opening of the 
second war of the French Revolution, in May, 1803, that he 
himself had supreme charge of a station, — his old familiar 
Mediterranean. 

Being held in such esteem, it was but a short time before 
Nelson was again sent off from Toulon, to which he did not 
return during the British occupation. He was now ordered to 
report to Commodore Linzee, then lying with a detachment of 
three ships-of-the-line in the harbor of Cagliari, at the south 
end of Sardinia. On her passage the " Agamemnon " met and 



MISSION TO TUNIS, 1793 97 

engaged a French squadron, of four large frigates and a brig. 
Though without decisive results, Nelson was satisfied with 
his own conduct in this affair, as was also Lord Hood when it 
came to his knowledge ; for, one of the frigates being badly 
crippled, the whole force, which was on its way to Nice, was 
compelled to take refuge in Corsica, where it was far from 
secure. Two days later, on the 24th of October, Cagliari was 
reached, and the "Agamemnon" accompanied the division to 
Tunis, arriving there on the 1st of November. 

Linzee's mission was to try and detach the Bey from the 
French interest, and it was hoped he could be induced to 
allow the seizure of a number of French vessels which had 
entered the port, under the convoy of a ship-of-the-line and 
four frigates. When the British entered, the frigates had 
disappeared, being in fact the same that Nelson had fought 
ten days before. In accordance with his instructions, Linzee 
strove to persuade the Bey that the Eepublican government, 
because of its revolutionary and bloodthirsty character, should 
receive no recognition or support from more regular states, 
not even the protection usually extended by a neutral port, 
and that in consequence he should be permitted to seize for 
Great Britain the vessels in Tunis. The Turk may possibly 
have overlooked the fallacy in this argument, which assumed 
that the protection extended by neutral governments was 
rather for the benefit of the belligerent than for the quiet 
and safety of its own waters ; but he was perfectly clear-sighted 
as to his personal advantage in the situation, for the French 
owners, in despair of getting to France, Avere selling their 
cargoes to him at one third their value. To the argument that 
the French had beheaded their king, he drily replied that the 
English had once done the same; and he decisively refused to 
allow the ships to be molested. Nelson was disgusted that 
his consent should have been awaited. '' The English seldom 
get much by negotiation except the being laughed at, which 
we have been ; and I don't like it. Had we taken, which in 
my opinion we ought to have done, the men-of-war and con- 
voy, worth at least £300,000, how much better we could have 
negotiated : — given the Bey £50,000, he would have been 
glad to have put up with the insult offered to his dignity ; " 
and he jjlainly intimates his dissatisfaction with Linzee. This 

7 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



irresponsible and irreflective outburst was, liowever, only an 
instance of the impatience liis enterprising, energetic spirit 
always felt when debarred from prompt action, whether by 
good or bad reasons ; for almost on the same day he expresses 
the sounder judgment : ''' Had we latterly attempted to take 
them I am sure the Bey would have declared against us, and 
done our trade some damage." No advantage could have 
accrued from the seizure of the French vessels, at all pro- 
portioned to the inconvenience of having the hostility of Tunis, 
flanking as it did the trade routes to the Levant. The British 
had then quite enough on their hands, without detaching an 
additional force from the north coast of the Mediterranean, to 
support a gratuitous quarrel on the south. As a matter of 
mere policy it would have been ill-judged. 

Nelson, however, did not as yet at all realize the wideness 
of the impending struggle, for it was in these very letters that 
he expressed a wish to exchange to the West Indies. " You 
know," he writes to his old friend Locker, " that Pole is gone 
to the West Indies. I have not seen him since his order, but 
I know it was a thing he dreaded. Had I been at Toulon I 
should have been a candidate for that service, for I think our 
sea war is over in these seas." Perhaps his intrinsic merit 
would have retrieved even such a mistake as we can now see 
this would have been, and he would there have come sooner 
into contact with Sir John Jervis — to whom, if to any one, 
the name of patron to Nelson may be applied — for Jervis then 
had the W^est India command ; but it is difficult to imagine 
Nelson's career apart from the incidents of his Mediterranean 
service. The Mediterranean seems inseparable from his name, 
and he in the end felt himself identified with it beyond all 
other waters. 

His longing for action, wdiich prompted the desire for the 
West Indies, was quickly gratified, for orders were received 
from Hood, by Linzee, to detach him from the latter's com- 
mand. The admiral sent him a very handsome letter upon 
his single-handed combat with the French frigates, and directed 
him to go to the north end of Corsica, to take charge of a 
division of vessels he would there find cruising, and to search 
for his late enemies along that coast and through the neighbor- 
ing waters, between the island and the shores of Italy. He 



COMMAND OFF CORSICA 99 

was also to warn off neutral vessels bound to Genoa, that port 
being declared blockaded, and to seize them if they persisted 
in their voyage thither. " I consider this command as a very 
high compliment," wrote iSTelsou to his uncle Suckling, "there 
being five older captains in the fleet." This it certainly was, 
— a compliment and a prophecy as well. 

In pursuance of these orders Nelson left Tunis on the 30th 
of November, and on the 8th of December discovered the 
French squadron, protected by shore batteries, in San Fiorenzo 
Bay, in Corsica. This island, which during the middle ages, 
and until some twenty years before the beginning of the 
French Eevolution, was a dependency of Genoa, had then by 
the latter been ceded to France, against the express wishes of 
the inhabitants, whose resistance was crushed only after a 
prolonged struggle. Although it was now in open revolt 
against the Revolutionary government, the troops of the latter 
still held three or four of the principal seaports, among them the 
nortliern one in which the frigates then lay, as well as Bastia 
upon the east coast of the island, and Calvi on the west. His 
force being insufficient to engage the works of any of these 
places, there was nothing for Nelson to do but to blockade 
them, in hopes of exhausting their resources and at least pre- 
venting the escape of the ships of war. In this he was 
successful, for the latter either were destroyed or fell into tlie 
hands of Great Britain, when the ports were reduced. 

Meanwhile affairs at Toulon were approaching the crisis 
which ended its tenure by the British and their allies. The 
garrison had never been sufficient to man properly the very 
extensive lines, which the peculiar configuration of the sur- 
rounding country made it necessary to occupy for the security 
of the town ; and the troops themselves were not only of 
different nations, but of very varying degrees of efficiency. 
Under these conditions the key of the position, accurately in- 
dicated by Napoleon Bonaparte, then a major and in command 
of the artillery, was held in insufficient force, and was success- 
fully stormed on the night of December 16, 1793. It was 
immediately recognized that the ships could no longer remain 
in the harbor, and that with them the land forces also must 
depart. After two days of hurried preparations, and an 
attempt, only partially successful, to destroy the dockyard and 



100 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

French ships of war, the fleets sailed out on the 19th of 
December, carrying with them, besides the soldiery, as many 
as possible of the wretched citizens, who were forced to fly in 
confusion and misery from their homes, in order to escape the 
sure and fearful vengeance of the Republican government. 
The " Agamemnon " was in Leghorn, getting provisions, when 
the fugitives arrived there, and Nelson speaks in vivid terms 
of the impression made upon him by the tales he heard and 
the sights he saw. "Fathers are here without families, and 
families without fathers, the pictures of horror and despair." 
" In short, all is horror. I cannot write all : my mind is deeply 
impressed with grief. Each teller makes the scene more 
horrible." He expressed the opinion that the evacuation was 
a benefit to England, and it unquestionably was. He had not 
always thought so ; but it must be allowed that the hopes and 
exultation with which he greeted the acquisition of the place 
had sufficient foundation, in the reported attitude of the people 
of Southern France, to justify the first opinion as well as the 
last. The attempt was worth making, though it proved unsuc- 
cessful. As it was, the occupation had resulted in a degree of 
destruction to the French ships and arsenal in Toulon, which, 
though then over-estimated, was a real gain to the allies. 



1 



CHAPTER IV. 

Reduction of Corsica by the British. ^Departure of Lord Hood 
FOR England. — The "Agamemnon" Refitted at Leghorn. 

jA:sruARY-DECEMBER, 1794. Age, 35. 

BY the loss of Toulon the British fleet in the Mediterranean 
was left adrift, without any secure harbor to serve as a 
depot for supplies and a base for extended operations. Hood 
took his ships to Hyeres Bay, a few miles east of Toulon, a 
spot where they could lie safely at anchor, but which was un- 
suitable for a permanent establishment, — the shores not being 
tenable against French attack. He now turned his eyes upon 
Corsica, whence the celebrated native chieftain, Paoli, who had 
led the natives in their former struggle against France, had 
made overtures to him, looking to the union of the island to 
the British crown. Nelson in person, or, during his brief 
absence in Leghorn, his division, had so closely invested the 
shores, that neither troops nor supplies of any kind had been 
able to enter since the early part of December, nor had the 
blockaded vessels been able to get out. The thoroughness 
with which this work was done brought him, on the 6th of 
January, 1794, yet further compliments from Hood, who 
wrote him that '"'he looked upon these frigates as certain, 
trusting to my zeal and activity, and knows, if it is in the 
power of man to have them, I will secure them." At the same 
time he was instructed to enter into communication with Paoli, 
and settle plans for the landing of the troops. In attending 
to this commission his intermediary was Lieutenant George 
Andrews, brother to the lady to whom he had become attached 
at St. Omer, and who had afterwards been a midshipman with 
him on board the "Boreas." ''This business going through 
my hands," he wrote with just pride, "is a proof of Lord 
Hood's confidence in me, and that I shall pledge myself for 
nothing but what will be acceptable to him." It was indeed 



102 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

evident that Hood Avas more aud more reposing in him a 
peculiar trust, a feeling which beyond most others tends to 
increase by its own action. Kelson repaid him with the most 
unbounded admiration. " The Lord is very good friends with 
me," he writes ; " he is certainly the best officer I ever saw. 
Everything from him is so clear it is impossible to misunder- 
stand him." "His zeal, his activity for the honour and benefit 
of his country," he says at another time, "are not abated. 
Upwards of seventy, he possesses the mind of forty years of 
age. He has not a thought separated from honour and glory." 
The flattering proofs of his superior's esteem, and the demand 
made upon his natural powers to exert themselves freely, had 
a very beneficial effect upon his health and spirits. It was 
not effort, however protracted and severe, but the denial of 
opportunity to act, whether by being left unemployed or 
through want of information, that wore Kelson down. " I 
have not been one hour at anchor for pleasure in eight months ; 
but I can assure you I never was better in health." 

Meanwhile a commission from the fleet arrived in Corsica. 
Sir Gilbert Elliot, the representative of the British govern- 
ment in the island, was at its head, and with him were associ- 
ated two army officers, one of whom afterwards became widely 
celebrated as Sir John Moore. A satisfactory agreement 
being concluded. Hood sailed from Hyeres Bay with the ships 
and troops, and operations began against San Fiorenzo, termi- 
nating in the evacuation of the place by the French, who upon 
the 19th of February retreated by land to Bastia. Kelson was 
not immediately connected with this undertaking; but he had 
the satisfaction of knowing that two of the four frigates, of 
whose detention in the island he was the immediate cause, 
were here lost to the enemy. He was during these weeks ac- 
tively employed harrying the coast — destroying depots of 
stores on shore, and small vessels laden with supplies. These 
services were mainly, though not entirely, rendered in the 
neighborhood of Bastia, a strongly fortified town, which was 
to become the next object of the British efforts, and the scene 
of his own exertions. There, also, though on a comparatively 
small scale, he was to give striking evidence of the character- 
istics which led him on, step by step, to his great renown. 

When Hood himself took command at San Fiorenzo, he 



SIEGE OF BASTIA 103 



relieved Nelson from that part of his charge, and sent him on 
the 7th of February to blockade Bastia, — a strictly detached 
service, and one of the utmost importance, as upon the inter- 
cepting of supplies the issue of the siege largely turned. 
Three weeks later, on the 1st of March, Xelson wrote : " We 
are still in the busy scene of war, a situation in which I own I 
feel pleasure, more especially as my actions have given great 
satisfaction to my commander-in-chief. The blocking up of 
Corsica he left to me : it has been accomplished in the most 
complete manner, not a boat got in, nor a soldier landed, 
although eight thousand men were embarked at Nice ;" and, 
he might have added, although a vessel was said to sail from 
Nice every thirty-six hours. Nor was his activity confined to 
blockading. He continually reconnoitered the town and the 
works, in doing which on the 23d of February he engaged the 
batteries at short range, with the "Agamemnon" and two 
frigates, — the action lasting for nearly two hours. While it 
was at its height, the heads of the British columns, coming 
from San Fiorenzo, only twelve miles distant by land, were 
seen upon the heights overlooking Bastia from the rear. 
" What a noble sight it must have been " to them ! wrote 
Nelson enthusiastically, in the ardor of his now opening 
career, — for it must be remembered that this hero of a hun- 
dred tights was even then but beginning to taste that rapture 
of the strife, in which he always breathed most freely, as 
though in his native element. 

Bastia, as he saw it and reported to Lord Hood, was a 
walled town with central citadel, of some ten thousand inhabi- 
tants, on the east coast of Corsica, and twenty miles south of 
Cape Corso, the northern extremity of the island. The main 
fortifications were along the sea-front ; but there was, besides, 
a series of detached works on either flank and to the rear. 
The latter not only guarded the approaches from the interior, 
but also, being situated on the hills, much above the town, 
were capable of commanding it, in case of an enemy gaining 
possession. Nelson, while modestly disclaiming any pre- 
sumptuous dependence upon his own judgment, expressed a 
decided opinion, based upon the engagement of the 23d, that 
the " Agamemnon " and the frigates could silence the fire of the 
sea-front, batter down the walls, and that then five hundred 



104 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

troops could carry the place by assault. " That the works on 
the hills would aunoy the town afterwards is certain, but the 
enemy being cut off from all supplies — the provisions in the 
town being of course in our possession — would think of 
nothing but making the best terms they could for themselves." 
To his dismay, however, and to the extreme annoyance of the 
admiral, General Dundas, commanding the army, refused to 
move against Bastia, condemning the attempt as visionary 
and rash. Meantime the French, unmolested except by the 
desultory efforts of the insurgent Corsicans, were each, day 
strengthening their works, and converting the possibilities 
Nelson saw into the impossibilities of the cautious general. 

Hood on the 25tli of February came round from San 
Fiorenzo to Bastia; but he purposely brought with him no 
captain senior to Nelson, in order that the latter might remain 
in charge of the operations he had begun so well. When 
Dundas retreated again to San Fiorenzo, Hood on the 3d of 
March followed him there with the flagship, to urge his co- 
operation ; leaving Nelson with six frigates to conduct the 
blockade and take such other steps as the opportunities might 
justify. By the middle of March, nearly three months having 
elapsed since her last hasty visit to Leghorn, the "Agamem- 
non " was wholly destitute of supplies. " We are really," wrote 
Nelson to Hood, " without firing, wine, beef, pork, flour, and 
almost without water : not a rope, canvas, twine, or nail in the 
ship. The ship is so light she cannot hold her side to the 
wind. . . . We are certainly in a bad plight at present, not a 
man has slept dry for many months. Yet," he continues, with 
that indomitable energy which made light of mere difficulties 
of material, and conveys so impressive a lesson to our modern 
days, when slight physical defects appear insurmountable, 
and ships not wholly up to date are counted obsolete, — ''yet, 
if your Lordship wishes me to remain off Bastia, I can, by 
going to Porto Ferrajo, get water and stores, and twenty-four 
hours in Leghorn will give us provisions ; and our refitting, 
which will take some time, can be put off a little. My wish is 
to be present at the attack of Bastia." 

On the 18th of March Hood summoned him to San Fiorenzo. 
The difference between him and Dundas had become a quarrel, 
and the latter had quitted his command. Hood wished to 



SIEGE OF BASTIA 105 



strengthen the argument with his successor, by a report of the 
observations made by Nelson ; but the latter records that, 
after expressing his opinion that eight hundred troops with 
four hundred seamen could reduce the place, it was found that 
all the army was united against an attack, declaring the im- 
possibility of taking Bastia, even if all the force were united, 
— and this, notwithstanding that an engineer and an artillery 
officer had visited the scene, and agreed with Xelson that there 
was a probability of success. On the north side both they and 
he considered the place weak, and at the same time found the 
ground favorable for establishing the siege guns. Moreover, 
even during the winter gales, he had succeeded in so closing 
the sea approaches, while the revolted Corsicans intercepted 
those by land, that a pound of coarse bread was selling for 
three francs. The spring equinox was now near at hand, and 
with better weather the blockade would be yet more efficient. 
Between actual attack and famine, he argued, the place must 
fall. "ISTot attacking it I could not but consider as a national 
disgrace. If the Army will not take it, we must, by some way 
or other." 

If every particular operation of war is to be considered by 
itself alone, and as a purely professional question, to be deter- 
mined by striking a balance between the arguments pro and 
con, it is probable that the army officers were right in their 
present contention. In nothing military was scientific accu- 
racy of prediction so possible as in forecasting the result and 
duration of a regular siege, where the force brought to bear on 
either side could be approximately known. But, even in this 
most methodical and least inspired of processes, the elements 
of chance, of the unforeseen, or even the improbable, will 
enter, disturbing the most careful calculations. For this 
reason, no case must be decided purely on its individual 
merits, without taking into account the other conditions of the 
campaign at large. For good and sufficient reasons, the 
British had undertaken, not to conquer a hostile island, but to 
effect the deliverance of a people who were already in arms, 
and had themselves redeemed their country with the exception 
of two or three fortified seaports, for the reduction of which 
they possessed neither the materials nor the technical skill. 
To pause in the movement of advance was, with a half- 



106 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

civilized race of unstable temperament, to risk everything. 
But besides, for the mere purpose of the blockade, it was im- 
perative to force the enemy as far as possible to contract his 
lines. Speaking of a new work thrown up north of the town, 
Nelson said with accurate judgment: "It must be destroyed, 
or the Corsicans will be obliged to give up a post which the 
enemy would immediately possess ; and of course throw us on 
that side at a greater distance from Eastia." The result would 
be, not merely so much more time and labor to be expended, 
nor yet only the moral effect on either party, but also the un- 
covering of a greater length of seaboard, by which supplies 
might be run into the town. 

The strength of the place, in which, when it fell, were found 
" seventy-seven pieces of ordnance, with an incredible amount 
of stores," was far superior to that estimated by the eye of 
Nelson, untrained as an engineer. Not only so, but the force 
within the walls was very much larger than he thought, when 
he spoke with such confidence. " I never yet told Lord Hood," 
he wrote nearly a year later, "that after everything was fixed 
for the attack of Bastia, I had information given me of the 
enormous number of troops we had to oppose us ; but my own 
honour. Lord Hood's honour, and the honour of our Country 
must have all been sacrificed, had I mentioned what I knew ; 
therefore you will believe what must have been my feelings 
during the whole siege, when I had often proposals made to 
me by men, now rewarded, to write to Lord Hood to raise the 
siege." " Had this been an English town," he said immediately 
after the surrender, " I am sure it would not have been taken 
by them. The more we see of this place, the more we are 
astonished at their giving it up, but the truth is, the different 
parties were afraid to trust each other." The last assertion, 
if correct, conveys just one of those incidents which so fre- 
quently concur to insure the success of a step rightly taken, 
as that of Nelson and Hood in this instance certainly was. 
"Forty-five hundred men," he continues, "have laid down 
their arms to under twelve hundred troops and seamen. If 
proofs were wanting to show that perseverance, unanimity, 
and gallantry, can accomplish almost incredible things, we are 
an additional instance." 

" I always was of opinion," he wrote in the exultation of 



SIEGE OF BASTIA 107 



reaction from the weight of responsibility he had assumed by 
his secrecy, — "I always was of opinion, have ever acted up 
to it, and never have had any reason to repent it, that one 
Englishman was equal to three Frenchmen." This curious 
bit of the gasconade into which Nelson from time to time 
lapsed, can scarcely be accepted as a sound working theory, 
or as of itself justifying the risk taken; and yet it undoubt- 
edly, under a grossly distorted form, portrays the tempera- 
ment Avhich enabled him to capture Bastia, and which made 
him what he was, — a man strong enough to take great 
chances for adequate ends. " All naval operations under- 
taken since I have been at the head of the government," said 
Napoleon, " have always failed, because the admirals see 
double, and have learned — where I do not know — that war 
can be made without running risks." It is not material cer- 
tainty of success, the iijnis fatuus which is the great snare of 
the mere engineer, or of the merely accomplished soldier, that 
points the way to heroic achievements. It is the vivid in- 
spiration that enables its happy possessor, at critical moments, 
to see and follow the bright clear line, which, like a ray of 
light at midnight, shining among manifold doubtful indica- 
tions, guides his steps. Whether it leads him to success or 
to failure, he may not know ; but that it is the path of wis- 
dom, of duty, and of honor, he knows full well by the per- 
suasion within, — by conviction, the fortifier of the reason, 
though not by sight, the assurance of demonstration. Only 
a man capable of incurring a disaster like that at Teneriffe 
could rise to the level of daring, which, through hidden perils, 
sought and wrought the superb triumph of Aboukir Bay. Such 
is genius, that rare but hazardous gift, which separates a man 
from his fellows by a chasm not to be bridged by human will. 
Thus endowed, Nelson before the walls of Bastia showed, 
though in a smaller sphere, and therefore with a lighter hazard, 
the same keen perception, the same instant decision, the same 
unfaltering resolve, the same tenacity of purpose, that, far 
over and beyond the glamour of mere success, have rendered 
eternally illustrious the days of St. Vincent, of the Nile, and 
of Copenhagen. 

Of the spirit which really actuated him, in his unwavering 
support of Lord Hood's inclination to try the doubtful issue, 



108 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

many interesting instances are afforded by his correspondence. 
" I feel for the honour of my Country, and had rather be beat 
than not make the attack. If we do not try we can never be 
successful. I own I have no fears for the final issue : it will 
be conquest, certain we will deserve it. My reputation de- 
pends on the opinion I have given ; but I feel an honest con- 
sciousness that I have done right. We must, we will have it, 
or some of our heads will be laid low. I glory in the attempt." 
" What would the immortal Wolfe have done ? " he says 
again, refresliing his own constancy in the recollection of an 
equal heroism, crowned with success against even greater 
odds. " As he did, beat the enemy, if he perished in the at- 
tempt." Again, a fortnight later : " W'e are in high health 
and spirits besieging Bastia; the final event, I feel assured, 
will be conquest." W^hen the siege had already endured for 
a month, and with such slight actual progress as to compel 
him to admit to Hood that the town battery had been " put in 
such a state, that firing away many shot at it is almost useless 
till we have a force sufficient to get nearer," his confidence 
remains unabated. "I have no fears about the final issue," 
he writes to his wife ; " it will be victory, Bastia will be ours ; 
and if so, it must prove an event to which the history of Eng- 
land can hardly boast an equal." Further on in the same letter 
he makes a prediction, so singularly accurate as to excite curi- 
osity about its source: " I will tell you as a secret, Bastia will 
be ours between the 20th and 24th of this month " — three 
weeks after the date of writing — "if succours do not get in." 
It surrendered actually on the 22d. One is tempted to specu- 
late if there had been any such understanding with the garrison 
as was afterwards reached with Calvi ; but there is no other 
token of such an arrangement. It is instructive also to com- 
pare this high-strung steadfastness of 2)urpose to dare every 
risk, if success perchance might be won thereby, with his 
comment upon his own impulses at a somewhat later date. 
"My disposition cannot bear tame and slow measures. Sure 
I am, had I commanded our fleet on the 14th, that either the 
whole French fleet would have graced my triumph, or I should 
have been in a confounded scrape." Surely the secret of great 
successes is in these words. 

The siege of Bastia was not in its course productive of 



I 



BASTIA TAKEN 109 



striking events. Having reasoned in vain with the two suc- 
cessive generals, Hood demanded that there should be sent 
back to him a contingent of troops, which had originally been 
detailed to serve as marines in the fleet, but which he had 
loaned to the army for the operations against San Fiorenzo. 
Having received these, he returned to Bastia, and on the 4th 
of April, 1794, the besieging force, twelve hundred troops and 
two hundred and fifty seamen, landed to the northward of the 
town. They at once began to throw up batteries, while the 
Corsicans harassed the landward approaches to the place. 
Nelson being with the troops, the " Agamemnon " with some 
frigates was anchored north of the city, Hood with his ships 
south of it. During the nights, boats from the fleet rowed 
guard near to the sea-front, with such diligence that few of 
the craft that attempted to run in or out succeeded in so 
doing. When darkness covered the waters, British gunboats 
crept close to the walls, and by an intermitting but frequent 
fire added much to the distress of the enemy. On the 11th 
of April the garrison was formally summoned, and, the ex- 
pected refusal having been received, the British batteries 
opened. There was not force enough, however, to bring the 
place to terms as a consequence of direct attack, and after 
three weeks Nelson, while betraying no apprehension of fail- 
ure, practically admitted the fact. " Although I have no 
doubt but even remaining in our present situation, and by 
strict guard rowing close to the town, and the Corsicans har- 
assing them on the hills, and the gunboats by night, but that 
the enemy must surrender before any great length of time, 
yet, if force can be spared, a successful attack on the heights 
must much facilitate a speedy capture. I own it will give me 
the highest pleasure to assist in the attack." 

It was by such an attack, or rather by the fear of it, coming 
upon the long and exhausting endurance of cannonade and 
hunger, that Bastia finally fell. "We shall in time accom- 
plish the taking of Bastia," wrote Nelson on the 3d of May. 
" I have no doubt in the way we proposed to attempt it, by 
bombardment and cannonading, joined to a close blockade of 
the harbour." " If not," he adds, " our Country will, I be- 
lieve, sooner forgive an officer for attacking his enemy than 
for letting it alone." On the 12th a large boat was captured 



]10 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

coming out from the port; and on her were found letters from 
the governor, Gentili, confessing the annoyance caused by the 
British fire, and saying that if relief did not arrive by the 
29th, the place must be looked upon as lost. Three nights 
later another boat was caught attempting to enter. On board 
her was a brother of the Mayor of Bastia. This man, while 
talking with Hood's secretary, expressed his fears for the 
result to his relatives, if the town were carried by assault. 
The secretary replied that Hood could not prevent those evils, 
if the garrison awaited the attack, and gave the Cqrsican to 
understand that it was imminent, troops being expected from 
San Fiorenzo. At the urgent request of the prisoner, one of 
the seamen taken with him was permitted to land with a letter, 
stating the impending danger. By a singular concidence, or 
by skilful contrivance, the San Fiorenzo troops appeared on 
the heights upon the evening. May 19, following this conver- 
sation. Flags of truce had already been hoisted, negotiations 
were opened, and on the 22d the French colors were struck 
and the British took possession. " When I reflect what we 
have achieved," confessed the hitherto outwardly unmoved 
Nelson, " I am all astonishment. The most glorious sight 
that an Englishman can experience, and which, I believe, 
none but an Englishman could bring about, was exhibited, — 
4,500 men laying down their arms to less than 1,000 British 
soldiers, who were serving as marines.'' As towards the 
French this account is perhaps somewhat less than fair ; but 
it does no more than justice to the admirable firmness and 
enterprise shown by Hood and Nelson. As a question of 
Bastia only, their attempt might be charged with rashness; 
but having regard to the political and military conditions, to 
the instability of the Corsican character, and to the value of 
the island as a naval station, it was amply justified, for the 
risks run were out of all proportion less than the advantage 
to be gained. 

Thus the siege of Bastia ended in triumph, despite the 
prior pronouncement of the general commanding the troops, 
that the attempt was "most visionary and rash." These 
epithets, being used to Hood after his own expressions in 
favor of the undertaking, had not unnaturally provoked from 
him a resentful retort ; and, as men are rarely conciliated by 



BASTIA TAKEN m 



the success of measures which they have ridiculed, there arose 
a degree of strained relations between army and navy, that 
continued even after the arrival of a new commander of the 
land forces, and indeed throughout Hood's association with 
the operations in Corsica. 

During this busy and laborious period, despite his burden 
of secret anxiety, Nelson's naturally delicate health showed 
the favorable reaction, which, as has before been noted, was 
with him the usual result of the call to exertion. His letters 
steadily reflect, and occasionally mention, the glow of exulta- 
tion produced by constant action of a worthy and. congenial 
nature. " We are in high health and spirits besieging Bastia," 
he writes to his wife soon after landing ; and shortly before 
the fall of the place he says again : " As to my health, it was 
never better, seldom so well." Yet, although from beginning 
to end the essential stay of the enterprise, the animating soul, 
without whose positive convictions and ardent support Lord 
Hood could scarcely have dared so great a hazard, he was 
throughout the siege left, apparently purposely, in an anoma- 
lous position, and was at the end granted a recognition which, 
though probably not grudging, was certainly scanty. No 
definition of his duties was ever given by the commander-in- 
chief. He appears as it were the latter's unacknowledged 
representative ashore, a plenipotentiary without credentials. 
" What my situation is," he writes to a relative, " is not to be 
described. I am everything, yet nothing ostensible ; enjoying 
the confidence of Lord Hood and Colonel Villettes, and the 
captains landed with the seamen obeying my orders." A fort- 
night later he writes to Hood : " Your Lordship knows exactly 
the situation I am in here. With Colonel Villettes I liave no 
reason but to suppose I am respected in the highest degree ; 
nor have I occasion to complain of want of attention to my 
wishes from any parties ; but yet I am considered as not com- 
manding the seamen landed. My wishes may be, and are, 
complied with ; my orders would possibly be disregarded. 
Therefore, if we move from hence, I would wish your Lord- 
ship to settle that point. Your Lordship will not, I trust, 
take this request amiss : I have been struggling with it since 
the first day I landed." 

Hood apparently gave him full satisfaction as regards .his 



112 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

own view of the situation. " I am happy," Nelson wrote, when 
acknowledging his reply, " that my ideas of the situation I am 
in here so perfectly agree with your Lordship's ; " but he did 
not settle the matter by a decisive order. His object, as he 
seems to have explained, was to bestow a certain amount of 
prominence upon a young captain, Hunt, who had recently 
lost his ship, and who, Hood thought, would be sooner pro- 
vided with another, if he appeared as in command at the guns. 
Nelson acceded to this arrangement with his usual generosity. 
" Your kind intention to Captain Hunt," he wrote, " I had the 
honour of telling your Lordship, should be furthered by every 
means in my power; and my regard for him, I assure you, is 
undiminished. He is a most exceeding good young man, nor 
is any one more zealous for the service. I don't complain of 
any one, but an idea has entered into the heads of some under 
him, that his command was absolutely distinct from me ; and 
that I had no authority over him, except as a request." Un- 
fortunately, Hood, in his desire to serve Hunt, not only unduly 
but absurdly minimized Nelson's relations to the whole affair. 
His despatch ran: "Captain Nelson, of his Majesty's ship 
Agamemnon, who had the command and directions of the sea- 
men in landing the guns, mortars and stores,^ and Captain 
Hunt who commanded at the batteries,^ . . . have an equal 
claim to my gratitude." To limit Nelson's share in the 
capture of Bastia to the purely subsidiary though important 
function of landing the guns, was as unjust as it was unneces- 
sary to the interests of Hunt. The latter, being second in 
command ashore, and afterwards sent home with the de- 
spatches, was sure to receive the reward customarily bestowed 
upon such services. 

The incident singularly and aptly illustrates the difference, 
which in a military service cannot be too carefully kept in 
mind, between individual expressions of opinion, which may be 
biassed, and professional reputation, which, like public senti- 
ment, usually settles at last not far from the truth. Despite 
this curious inversion of the facts by Lord Hood, there prob- 
ably was no one among the naval forces, nor among the 
soldiery, who did not thoroughly, if perchance somewhat 
vaguely, appreciate that Nelson was the moving spirit of the 
1 The italics are the autiior's. 



SERVICES BEFORE BASTIA 113 

whole operation, even beyond Hood himself. As the Greek 
commanders after Salamis were said to have voted the award 
of merit each to himself first, but all to Themistocles second, 
so at Bastia, whatever value individuals might place on their 
own services, all probably would have agreed that Nelson 
came next. 

The latter meantime was happily unconscious of the wrong 
done him, so that nothing marred the pleasure with which he 
congratulated the commander-in-chief, and received the latter's 
brief but hearty general order of thanks, wherein Kelson's 
own name stood foremost, as was due both to his seniority 
and to his exertions. When the despatch reached him, he 
freely expressed his discontent in letters to friends ; but being, 
at the time of its reception, actively engaged in the siege of 
Calvi, the exhilaration of that congenial employment for the 
moment took the edge off the keenness of his resentment. 
" Lord Hood and myself were never better friends — nor, 
although /lis Letter does,^ did he wish to put me where I never 
Avas — in the rear. Captain Hunt, who lost his ship, he 
Avanted to push forward for another, — a young man who never 
was on a battery, or ever rendered any service during the 
siege ; if any person ever says he did, then I submit to the 
character of a story-teller. Poor Serocold, Avho fell here,^ 
was determined to publish an advertisement, as he commanded 
a battery under my orders. The whole operations of the siege 
were carried on through Lord Hood's letters to me. I was the 
mover of it — I was the cause of its success. Sir Gilbert 
Elliot will be my evidence, if any is required. I am not a 
little vexed, bat shall not quarrel." "I am well aware," he 
had written to Mrs. Kelson a few days before, " my poor ser- 
vices will not be noticed : I have no interest ; but, however 
services may be received, it is not right in an officer to slacken 
his zeal for his Country." 

These noble words only voiced a feeling which in Kelson's 
heart had all the strength of a principle ; and this light of the 
single eye stood him in good stead in the moments of bitterness 
which followed a few months later, when a lull in the storm 
of fighting gave the sense of neglect a chance to rankle. 

1 The italics are Nelson's. 

2 Written at the siege of Calvi. 



114 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

"My heart is full," he writes then to his uncle Suckling, 
speaking not only of Bastia, but of the entire course of opera- 
tions in Corsica, " when I think of the treatment I have re- 
ceived : every man who had any considerable share in the 
reduction has got some place or other — I, only I, am without 
reward. . . . Nothing but my anxious endeavour to serve my 
Country makes me bear up against it ; but I sometimes am 
ready to give all up." " Forgive this letter," he adds towards 
the end : " I have said a great deal too much of myself ; but 
indeed it is all too true." In similar strain he expressed him- 
self to his wife : " It is very true that I have ever served faith- 
fully, and ever has it been my fate to be neglected ; but that shall 
not make me inattentive to my duty. I have pride in doing 
my duty well, and a self-approbation, which if it is not so 
lucrative, yet perhaps affords more pleasing sensations." Thus 
the consciousness of duty done in the past, and the clear 
recognition of what duty still demanded in the present and 
future, stood him in full stead, when he failed to receive at 
the hands of others the honor he felt to be his due, and which, 
he never wearied in proclaiming, was in his eyes priceless, 
above all other reward. " Corsica, in respect of prizes," he 
wrote to Mrs. Nelson, " produces nothing but honour, far 
above the consideration of wealth : not that I despise riches, 
quite the contrary, yet I would not sacrifice a good name to 
obtain them. Had I attended less than I have done to the 
service of my Country, I might have made some money too : 
however, I trust my name will stand on record when the 
money-makers will be forgot," — a hope to be abundantly 
fulfilled. 

At the moment Bastia fell there arrived from England a 
new commander-in-chief for the land forces, General Stuart, 
an officer of distinguished ability and enterprise. Cheered by 
the hope of cordial co-operation. Hood and Nelson resumed 
without delay their enthusiastic efforts. "Within a week, on 
the 30th of May, the latter wrote that the " Agamemnon" was 
taking on board ammunition for the siege of Calvi, the last 
remaining of the hostile strongholds. In the midst of the 
preparations, at eleven p. m. of June 6, word was received 
that nine French ships-of-the-line had come out of Toulon, and 
were believed to be bound for Calvi, with reinforcements for 



HIS MILITARY PRINCIPLES 115 

the garrison. At seven the next morning the squadron was 
under way ; the " Agamemnon," which had two hundred tons 
of ordnance stores to unload, sailing only half an hour after her 
less encumbered consorts, whom she soon overtook. 

Hood shaped his course for Calvi, being constrained thereto, 
not only by the rumor of the enemy's destination, but also by 
the military necessity of effecting a junction with the rest of 
his fleet. Admiral Hotham, who commanded the British 
division of seven ships in front of Toulon, instead of waiting 
to verify the report brought to him of the enemy's force, — 
which was actually the same, numerically, as his own, — bore 
up hastily for Calvi, intending, so wrote Nelson at the time, 
to fight them there, rather than that they should throw in 
succors. "Whatever their numbers, thus to surrender touch of 
them at the beginning was an evident mistake, for which, as 
for most mistakes, a penalty had in the end to be paid; and 
in fact, if the relief of Calvi was the object of the sortie, the 
place to fight was evidently as far from there as possible. 
Off Toulon, even had Hotham been beaten, his opponents 
would have been too roughly handled to carry out their mis- 
sion. As it was, this precipitate retirement lost the British 
an opportunity for a combat that might have placed their 
control of the sea be3^ond peradventure ; and a few months 
later, Nelson, who at first had viewed Hotham's action with 
the generous sympathy and confident pride which always 
characterized his attitude towards his brother officers, showed 
how clearly he was reading in the book of experience the 
lessons that should afterwards stand himself in good stead. 
"When 'Victory' is gone," he wrote, "we shall be thirteen 
sail of the line [to the French fifteen], when the enemy will 
keep our new Commanding Officer [Hotham] in hot water, 
who missed, unfortunately, the opportunity of fighting them, 
last June." Ten years later, in his celebrated chase of Ville- 
neuve's fleet, he said to his captains : " If we meet the enemy 
we shall find them not less than eighteen, I rather think 
twenty, sail of the line, and therefore do not be surprised if I 
should not fall on them immediately [he had but eleven] — ive 
wonH part ^ without a battle ; " and he expressed with the 
utmost decision his clear appreciation that even a lost battle, if 

1 Author's italics. 



116 THE LIFE UF NELSON 

delivered at the right point oi* at the right moment, would 
frustrate the ulterior objects of the enemy, by crippling the 
force upon which they depended. As will be seen in the 
sequel, Hotham, throughout his brief command as Hood's 
successor, suffered the consequences of permitting so impor- 
tant a fraction of the enemy's fleet to escape his grasp, when 
it was in his power to close with it. 

The British divisions met off the threatened port two days 
after leaving Bastia, and two hours later a lookout frigate 
brought word that the French fleet had been seen by her the 
evening before, to the northward and westward, some forty 
miles off its own coast. Hood at once made sail in pursuit, 
and in the afternoon of the 10th of June caught sight of the 
enemy, but so close in with the shore that they succeeded in 
towing their ships under the protection of the batteries in 
Golfe Jouan, where, for lack of wind, he was unable to follow 
them for some days, during Avliich they had time to strengthen 
their position beyond his powers of offence. Hotham's error 
was irreparable. The " Agamemnon " was then sent back to 
Bastia, to resume the work of transportation, which Nelson 
pushed with the untiring energy that characterized all his 
movements. Arriving on the 12th, fifteen hundred troops 
were embarked by eight the next morning, and at four in the 
afternoon he sailed, having with him two smaller ships of w^ar 
and twenty-two transports. On the 15th he anchored at San 
Fiorenzo. 

Here he met General Stuart. The latter was anxious to 
proceed at once with the siege of Calvi, but asked Nelson 
whether he thought it proper to take the shipping to that 
exposed position ; alluding to the French fleet that had left 
Toulon, and which Hood was then seeking. Nelson's reply 
is interesting, as reflecting the judgment of a warrior at once 
prudent and enterprising, concerning the influence of a hostile 
" fleet in being " upon a contemplated detached operation. 
" I certainly thought it right," he said, " placing the firmest 
reliance that we should be perfectly safe under Lord Hood's 
protection, who would take care that the French fleet at Gour- 
jean ^ should not molest us." To Hood he wrote a week later : 
"I believed ourselves safe under your Lordship's wing." At 
1 Golfe Jouan ; on the coast of France between Toulon and Nice. 



OPEEATIONS AGAINST CALVI 117 

tliis moment he thought the French to be nine sail-of-the-line 
to the, British thirteen, — no contemptible inferior force. Yet 
that he recognized the possible danger from such a detach- 
ment is also clear ; for, writing two days earlier, under the 
same belief as to the enemy's strength, and speaking of the 
expected approach of an important convoy, he says : " I hope 
they will not venture up till Lord Hood can get off Toulon, 
or wherever the French fleet are got to." When a particular 
opinion has received the extreme expression now given to that 
concerning the '^ fleet in being," and apparently has under- 
gone equally extreme misconception, it is instructive to recur 
to the actual effect of such a force, upon the practice of a man 
with whom moral effect was never in excess of the facts of 
the case, whose imagination produced to him no paralyzing 
picture of remote contingencies. Is it probable that, with the 
great issues of 1690 at stake. Nelson, had he been in Tour- 
ville's place, would have deemed the crossing of the Channel 
by French troops impossible, because of Torrington's '' fleet iu 
being " ? 

Sailing again on June 16, the expedition arrived next day 
off Calvi. Although it was now summer, the difliculties of 
the new undertaking were, from the maritime point of view, 
very great. The town of Calvi, which was walled and had a 
citadel, lies upon a promontory on the west side of an open gulf 
of the same name, a semicircular recess, three miles wide by 
two deep, on the northwest coast of Corsica. The western 
point of its shore line is Cape Eevellata ; the eastern. Point 
Espano. The port being fortified and garrisoned, it was not 
practicable to take the shipping inside, nor to establish on the 
inner beach a safe base for disembarking. The " Agamemnon " 
therefore anchored outside, nearly two miles south of Cape 
Eevellata, and a mile from shore, in the excessive depth of 
fifty-three fathoms ; the transports coming-to off the cape, but 
farther to seaward. The water being so deep, and the bottom 
rocky, the position was perilous for sailing-ships, for the pre- 
vailing summer wind blows directly on the shore, which is 
steep-to and affords no shelter. Abreast the " Agamemnon " 
was a small inlet, Porto Agro, about three miles from Calvi by 
difficult approaches. Here Nelson landed on the 18th with 
General Stuart; and, after reconnoitring both the beach and the 



118 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

town, the two officers decided that, though a very bad landing, 
it was the best available. On the 19th, at 7 a. m., the troops 
disembarked. That afternoon Nelson himself went ashore to 
stay, taking with him two hundred and fifty seamen. The next 
day it came on to blow so hard that most of the ships put to 
sea, and no intercourse was had from the land with those 
which remained. The "Agamemnon " did not return till the 
24th. Lord Hood was by this time in San Fiorenzo Bay, having 
abandoned the hope of attacking the French fleet in Golfe 
Jouan. On the 27th he arrived off Calvi, and thenceforth Nelson 
was in daily communication with him till the place fell. 

As the army in moderate, though not wholly adequate, force 
conducted the siege of Calvi, under a general officer of vigor- 
ous character, the part taken by Nelson and his seamen, 
though extremely important, and indeed essential to the ulti- 
mate success, was necessarily subordinate. It is well to notice 
that his journal, and correspondence with Lord Hood, clearly 
recognize this, his true relation to the siege of Calvi ; for it 
makes it probable that, in attributing to himself a much more 
important part at Bastia, and in saying that Hood's report 
had put him unfairly in the background, he was not exag- 
gerating his actual though ill-defined position there. That 
Nelson loved to dwell in thought upon his own achievements, 
that distinction in the eyes of his fellows was dear to him, 
that he craved recognition, and was at times perhaps too in- 
sistent in requiring it, is true enough ; but there is no indi- 
cation that he ever coveted the laurels of others, or materially 
misconceived his own share in particular events. Glory, sweet 
as it was to him, lost its value, if unaccompanied by the con- 
sciousness of desert which stamps it as honor. It is, there- 
fore, not so much for personal achievement as for revelation 
of character that this siege has interest in his life. 

Besides the defences of the town proper, Calvi was pro- 
tected by a series of outworks extending across the neck of 
land upon which it lay. Of these the outermost was on the 
left, looking from the place. It flanked the approaches to 
the others, and commanded the communications with the 
interior. It was, by Nelson's estimate, about twenty-two 
hundred yards from the town, and had first to be reduced. By 
the 3d of July tliirteen long guns, besides a number of mortars 



SIEGE OF CALVI 119 



and howitzers, had been dragged from the beach to the spot 
by the seamen, who also assisted in placing them in position, 
and for the most part worked them in battle, an artillerist 
from the army pointing. Nelson, with Captain Hallowell, 
already an officer of mark and afterwards one of distinction, 
took alternate day's duty at the batteries, a third captain, 
Serocold, having fallen early in the siege. Fearing news 
might reach his wife that a naval captain had. been killed, 
without the name being mentioned, he wrote to her of this sad 
event, adding expressively : " I am very busy, yet own I am 
in all my glory ; except with you, I would not be anywhere 
but where I am, for the world." On July 7th the first out- 
work fell. The attack upon the others was then steadily and 
systematically prosecuted, until on the 19th all had been 
captured, and the besiegers stood face to face with the town 
walls. 

During this time Nelson, as always, was continually at the 
front and among the most exposed. Out of six guns in the 
battery which he calls " ours," five were disabled in six da,js. 
On the 12th at daylight, a heavy fire opened from the town, 
which, he says, " seldom missed our battery ; " and at seven 
o'clock a shot, which on the ricochet cleared his head by a 
hair's breadth, drove sand into his face and right eye with 
such violence as to incapacitate him. He spoke lightly and 
cheerfully of the incident to Lord Hood, " I got a little hurt 
this morning : not much, as you may judge by my writing," 
and remained absent from duty only the regular twenty-four 
hours ; but, after some fluctuations of hope, the sight of the 
eye was permanently lost to him. Of General Stuart's con- 
duct in the operations he frequently speaks with cordial 
admiration, "He is not sparing of himself on any occasion, 
he every night sleeps with us in the advanced battery. If I 
may be allowed to judge, he is an extraordinary good judge of 
ground. No officer ever deserved success more." At the same 
time he expresses dissatisfaction with some of the subordinate 
army officers, to whose inefficiency he attributes the necessity 
for undue personal exertion on the general's part : " The 
General is not well. He fatigues himself too much, but I 
can't help seeing he is obliged to do it. He has not a 
person to forward his views, — the engineer sick, the artillery 



120 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

captain not fit for active service ; therefore every minute thing 
must be done by himself, or it is not done at all." 

The Avork was tedious and exhausting, and the malaria of 
the hot Corsican summer told heavily on men's health and 
patience. The supply of ammunition, and of material of war 
generally, for the army seems to have been inadequate ; and 
heavy demands were made upon the fleet, not only for guns, 
which could be returned, but for powder and shot, the ex- 
penditure of which might prove embarrassing before they could 
be renewed. The troops also were not numerous enough, 
under the climatic conditions, to do all their own duty. In 
such circumstances, when two parties are working together to 
the same end, but under no common control, each is prone to 
think the other behindhand i:i his work and exacting in his 
demands. "Why don't Lord Hood land 500 men to work ? " 
said Colonel Moore, the general's right-hand man. " Our 
soldiers are tired." Nelson, on the other hand, thought that 
Moore wanted over-much battering done to the breach of a 
work, before he led the stormers to it ; and Hood, who was 
receiving frequent reports of the preparations of the French 
fleet in Toulon, was impatient to have the siege pushed, and 
thovight the army dilatory. "The rapidity with which the 
French are getting on at Toulon," he wrote confidentially to 
Nelson, " makes it indispensably necessary for me to put the 
whole of the fleet under my command in the best possible 
state for service ; and I must soon apply to the general for 
those parts of the regiments now on shore, ordered by his 
Majesty to serve in lieu of marines, to be held in readiness to 
embark at the shortest notice. I shall delay this application 
as long as possible." 

Nelson, being a seaman, sympathized of course with his 
own service, and with Hood, for whom he had most cordial 
admiration, both personal and professional. But at the same 
time he was on the spot, a constant eye-witness to the difficul- 
ties of the siege, a clear-headed observer, with sound military 
instincts, and fair-minded when facts were before him. The 
army, he wrote to Hood, is harassed to death, and he notices 
that it suffers from sickness far more than do the seamen. 
He repeats the request for more seamen, and, although he 
seems to doubt the reasonableness of the demand, evidently 



FRICTION BETWEEN ARMY AND NAVY 121 

thinks that they should be furnished, if possible. Hood 
accordingly sent an additional detachment of three hundred, 
raising the number on shore to the five hundred suggested by 
Moore. " I had much rather," he wrote, " that a hundred sea- 
men should be landed unnecessarily, than that one should be 
kept back that was judged necessary." On the other hand, 
when the general, after a work bearing on the bay had been 
destroyed, suggests that the navy might help, by laying the 
ships against the walls, Nelson takes " the liberty of observ- 
ing that the business of laying wood before walls was much 
altered of late," and adds the common-sense remark, that " the 
quantity of powder and shot which would be fired away on 
such an attack could be much better directed from a, battery 
on shore." This conversation took place immediately after 
all the outworks had been reduced. It was conducted " with 
the greatest politeness," he writes, and " the General thanked 
me for my assistance, but it was necessary to come to the 
point whether the siege should be persevered in or given up. 
If the former, he must be supplied with the means, which 
were more troops, more seamen to work, and more ammuni- 
tion." Nelson replied that, if the requisite means could not 
be had on the spot, they could at least hold on where they 
were till supplied from elsewhere. 

It will be noticed that Nelson was practically the inter- 
mediary between the two commanders-in-chief. In fact, there 
appears to have been between them some constraint, and he 
was at times asked to transmit a message which he thought 
had better go direct. In this particularly delicate situation, 
one cannot but be impressed with the tact he for the most 
part shows, the diplomatic ability, which was freely attributed 
to him by his superiors in later and more influential commands. 
This was greatly helped by his cordial good-will towards 
others, combined with disinterested zeal for the duty before 
him; the whole illumined by unusual sagacity and good sense. 
He sees both sides, and conveys his suggestions to either with 
a self-restraint and deference which avert resentment ; and he 
preserves both his calmness and candor, although he notices 
in the camp some jealousy of his confidential communication 
with his immediate superior, the admiral. _ Though never 
backward to demand what he thought the rights of himself or 



122 THE LITE OF NELSON 



i 



his associates, Nelson was always naturally disposed to recon- 
cile differences, to minimize causes of trouble, and this native 
temperament had not yet undergone the warping which fol- 
lowed his later wounds — especially that on the head received 
at the Nile — and the mental conflict into which he was 
plunged by his unhappy passion for Lady Hamilton. At this 
time, in the flush of earlier enthusiasm, delighting as few men 
do in the joy of battle, he strove to promote harmony, to 
smooth over difficulties by every exertion possible, either by 
doing whatever was asked of him, or by judicious representa- 
tions to others. Thus, when Hood, impatient at the disturb- 
ing news from Toulon, wishes to hasten the conclusion by 
summo.ning the garrison, in the hope that it may yield at 
once, the general objected, apparently on the ground that the 
statement of their own advantages, upon which such a sum- 
mons might be based, would be prejudicial, if, as was most 
probable, the demand was rejected. Whatever his reason. 
Nelson, though indirectly, intimates to Hood that in this 
matter he himself agrees, upon the whole, with the general, 
and Hood yields the point, — the more so that he learns from 
Nelson that the outposts are to be stormed the next night ; 
and sorely was the captain, in his judicious efforts thus to 
keep the peace, tried by the postponement of the promised 
assault for twenty-four hours. " Such th Ings are,^' he wrote 
to Hood, using a favorite expression. " I hope to God the 
general, who seems a good officer and an amiable man, is not 
led away ; but Colonel Moore is his great friend." 

The feeling between the land and sea services was empha- 
sized in the relations existing between Lord Hood and Colonel 
Moore, who afterwards, as Sir John Moore, fell gloriously at 
Corunna. To these two eminent officers fortune denied the 
occasion to make full proof of their greatness to the world ; 
but they stand in the first rank of those men of promise 
whose failure has been due, not to their own shortcomings, 
but to the lack of opportunity. Sir John Moore has been the 
happier, in that the enterprise with which his name is chiefly 
connected, and upon which his title to fame securely rests, 
was completed, and wrought its full results ; fortunate, too, in 
having received the vindication of that great action at the 
hands of the most eloquent of military historians. His coun- 



ADMIRAL, LORD HOOD. 
From the painting by L. F. Abbott, in the National Portrait Gallery. 









^^^Hr. ^»m^.. 


-■■ :■■ 1 



HOOD AND MOORE 123 



try and his profession may well mourn a career of such, fair 
opening so soon cut short. But daring and original in the 
highest degree as was the march from Salamanca to Sahagun, 
it did not exceed, either in originality or in daring, the pur- 
poses nourished by Lord Hood, which he had no opportunity 
so to execute as to attract attention. Condemned to subordi- 
nate positions until he had reached the age of seventy, his 
genius is known to us only by his letters, and by the frustrated 
plans at St. Kitts in 1782, and at Golfe Jouau in 1794, in the 
former of which, less fortunate than Moore, he failed to 
realize his well-grounded hope of reversing, by a single blow, 
the issues of a campaign. 

It is to be regretted that two such men could not under- 
stand each other cordially. Hood, we know from his letters, 
was " of that frame and texture that I cannot be indifferent," 
— "full of anxiety, impatience, and apprehension," — when 
service seemed to him slothfully done. Moore, we are told 
by Napier, " maintained the right with vehemence bordering 
upon fierceness." Had he had the chief command on shore, 
it is possible that the two, impetuous and self-asserting though 
they were, might have reached an understanding. But in the 
most unfortunate disagreement about Bastia, — wherein it is 
to a naval officer of to-day scarcely possible to do otherwise 
than blame the sullen lack of enterprise shown by the army, — 
and afterwards at Calvi, Moore appeared to Hood, and to 
Nelson also, as the subordinate, the power behind the throne, 
who was prompting a line of action they both condemned. 
No position in military life is more provocative of trouble 
than to feel you are not dealing with the principal, but with 
an irresponsible inferior ; and the situation is worse, because 
one in which it is almost impossible to come to an issue. 
Moore's professional talent and force of character naturally 
made itself felt, even with a man of Stuart's ability. Hood 
and Nelson recognized this, and they resented, as inspired by 
a junior, what they might have combated dispassionately, if 
attributed to the chief. There was friction also between 
Moore and Elliot, the viceroy of the island. Doubtless, as in 
all cases where suspicion, not to say jealousy, has been begot, 
much more and worse was imagined by both parties than 
actually occurred. The apportionment of blame, or prolonged 



124 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

discussion of the matter, is out of place in a biography of 
Nelson. To that it is of moment, only because it is proper to 
state that Nelson, on the spot and in daily contact, — Nelson, 
upon whose zeal and entire self-devotion at this period no 
doubt is cast, — agreed in the main with Hood's opinion as to 
what the latter called the San Fiorenzo leaven, of which Moore 
was to them the exponent. It is true that Nelson naturally 
sympathized with his profession and his admiral, whom he 
heartily admired ; but some corrective, at least, to such par- 
tiality, was supplied by his soreness about the latter's omission 
duly to report his services at Bastia, of which he just now 
became aware. The estrangement between the two com- 
manders-in-chief was doubtless increased by the apparent 
reluctance, certainly the lack of effort, to see one another 
frequently. 

The principal work, called by Nelson the Mozelle battery, 
was carried before daylight of July 19, and before dark all the 
outposts were in the hands of the British. "I could have 
wished to have had a little part in the storm," wrote Nelson, 
characteristically covetous of strenuous action, " if it was only 
to have placed the ladders and pulled away the palisadoes. 
However, we did the part allotted to us." That day a sum- 
mons was sent to the garrison, but rejected, and work upon 
batteries to breach the town.walls was then pushed rapidly 
forward ; for it was becoming more and more evident that the 
siege must be brought to an end, lest the entire force of 
besiegers should become disabled by sickness. On the 28th 
the batteries were ready, and General Stuart sent in word 
that he would not fire upon the hospital positions, where indi 
cated by black flags. The besieged then asked for a truce of 
twenty-five days, undertaking to lay down their arms, if not 
by then relieved. The general and admiral refused, but were 
willing to allow six days. This the garrison in turn rejected ; 
and on the night of the 30th four small vessels succeeded in 
eluding the blockading frigates and entering supplies, which 
encouraged the besieged. On the 31st the batteries opened, 
and after thirty-six hours' heavy cannonade the town held out 
a flag of truce. An arrangement was made that it should sur- 
render on the 10th of August, if not relieved ; the garrison to 
be transported to France without becoming prisoners of war. 



CALVI CAPITULATES 125 

No relief arriving, the place capitulated on the day named. 
It was high time for the besiegers. "We have upwards of 
one thousand sick out of two thousand," wrote Nelson, " and 
tlie others not much better than so many phantoms. We have 
lost many men from the season, very few from the enemy." 
He himself escaped more easily than most. To use his own 
quaint expression, " All the prevailing disorders have attacked 
me, but I have not strength enough for them to fasten upon. 
I am here the reed amongst the oaks : I bow before the storm, 
while the sturdy oak is laid low." The congenial moral sur- 
roundings, in short, — the atmosphere of exertion, of worthy 
and engrossing occupation, — the consciousness, to him de- 
lightful, of distinguished action, of heroic persistence through 
toil and danger, — prevailed even in his physical frame over 
discomfort, over the insidious climate, and even over his dis- 
tressing wound. " This is my ague day," he writes when the 
batteries opened; "I hope so active a scene will keep off the 
fit. It has shaken me a good deal ; but I have been used to 
them, and now don't mind them much." " Amongst the 
wounded, in a slight manner, is myself, my head being a 
good deal wounded and my right eye cut down ; but the 
surgeons flatter me I shall not entirely lose the sight. It con- 
fined me, thank God, only one day, and at a time when nothing 
particular happened to be doing." " You must not think my 
hurts confined me," he tells his wife ; " no, nothing but the 
loss of a limb would have kept me from my duty, and I believe 
my exertions conduced to preserve me in this general mor- 
tality." In his cheery letters, now, no trace is perceptible of 
the fretful, complaining temper, which impaired, though it 
did not destroy, the self-devotion of his later career. No 
other mistress at this time contended with honor for the pos- 
session of his heart; no other place than the post of duty 
before Calvi distracted his desires, or appealed to his imagina- 
tion through his senses. Not even Lord Hood's report of the 
siege of Bastia, which here came to, his knowledge, and by 
which he thought himself wronged, had bitterness to over- 
come the joy of action and of self-contentment. 

Not many days were required, after the fall of Calvi, to 
remove the fleet, and the seamen who had been serving on 
shore, from the pestilential coast. Nelson seems to have been 



126 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

intrusted, with the embarkation of the prisoners in the trans- 
ports which were to take them to Toulon. He told his wife 
that he had been four months landed, and felt almost qualified 
to pass his examination as a besieging general, but that he 
had no desire to go on with campaigning. On the 11th of 
August, the day after the delivery of the place, he was again 
on board the " Agamemnon," from whose crew had been drawn 
the greatest proportion of the seamen for the batteries. One 
hundred and fifty of them were now in their beds. "My 
ship's company are all worn out," he wrote, " as is this whole 
army, except myself; nothing hurts me, — of two thousand 
men I am the most healthy. Every other officer is scarcely 
able to crawl." Among the victims of the deadly climate was 
Lieutenant Moutray, the son of the lady to w^hom, ten years 
before, he had been so warmly attracted in the West Indies. 
Nelson placed a monument to him in the church at San 
Fiorenzo. 

On the 15th of August the "Agamemnon" sailed from 
Calvi, and after a stop at San Fiorenzo, where Hood then was, 
reached Leghorn on the 18th, Now that the immediate 
danger of the siege was over. Kelson admitted to his wife the 
serious character of the injury he had received. The right 
eye was nearly deprived of sight, — only so far recovered as 
to enable him to distinguish light from darkness. For all 
purposes of use it was gone ; but the blemish was not to be 
perceived, unless attention was drawn to it. 

At Leghorn the ship lay for a month, — the first period of 
repose since she went into commission, a year and a half 
before. While there, the physician to the fleet came on board 
and surveyed the crew, finding them in a very weak state, and 
unfit to serve. This condition of things gave Nelson hopes 
that, upon the approaching departure of Lord Hood for Eng- 
land, the " Agamemnon " might go with him ; for he was loath 
to separate from an admiral whose high esteem he liad won, 
and upon whom he looked as the first sea-officer of Great 
Britain. Hood was inclined to take her, and to transfer the 
ship's company bodily to a seventy-four. This he considered 
no more than due to Nelson's distinguished merit and services, 
and he had indeed offered him each ship of that rate whose 
command fell vacant in the Mediterranean; but the strong 



REFITTING AT LEGHORN 127 

sense of attachment to those Avho had shared his toils and 
dangers, of reluctance that they should see him willing to 
leave them, after their hard work together, — that combination 
of sympathy and tact which made so much of Xelson's success 
as a leader of men, — continu.ed to prevent his accepting pro- 
motion that would sever his ties to them. 

The exigencies of the war in the Mediterranean forbade the 
departure, even of a sixty-four with a disabled crew. A full 
month later her sick-list was still seventy-seven, out of a total 
of less than four hundred. "Though certainly unfit for a 
long cruise," Nelson said, "we are here making a show," — a 
military requirement not to be neglected or despised. He 
accepted the disappointment, as he did all service rubs at this 
period, with perfect temper and in the best spirit. " We must 
not repine," he wrote to his wife on the 12th of October, the 
day after Hood sailed for England. "Lord Hood is very well 
inclined towards me, but the service must ever supersede all 
private consideration, I hope you will spend the winter cheer- 
fully. Do not repine at my absence; before spring I hope we 
shall have peace, when we must look out for some little 
cottage." She fretted, however, as some women will; and he, 
to comfort her, wrote more sanguinely about himself than the 
facts warranted. " Why you should be uneasy about me, so 
as to make yourself ill, I know not. I feel a confident protec- 
tion in whatever service I may be employed upon; and as to 
my health, I don't know that I was ever so truly well. I 
fancy myself grown quite stout." To his old captain. Locker, 
he admitted that he could not get the better of the fever. 

Corsica being now wholly in the power of its inhabitants, 
allied with and supported by Great Britain, his attention and 
interest were engrossed by the French fleet centring upon 
Toulon, the dominant factor of concern to the British in the 
Mediterranean, where Vice-Admiral Hotham had succeeded 
Hood as commander-in-chief. Nelson realizes more and more 
the mistake that was made, when a fraction of it was allowed 
to escape battle in the previous June. The various reasons 
by which he had at first excused the neglect to bring it to 
action no longer weigh with him. He does not directly blame, 
but he speaks of the omission as an " opportunity lost," — a 
phrase than which there are few more ominous, iu char- 



128 THE LIFE OF NELSOX 

acterizing the closely balanced, yet weighty, decisions upon 
which the issues of war depend. Nothing, he thinks, can 
prevent the junction of the two fragments, — then in Golfe 
Jouan and Toulon, — one of which, with more resolution and 
promptitude on Hotham's part, might have been struck singly 
at sea a few months before ; and if they join, there must fol- 
low a fleet action, between forces too nearly equal to insure to 
Great Britain the decisive results that were needed. The 
thought he afterwards expressed, "Numbers only can an- 
nihilate," was clearly floating in his brain, — inarticulate, 
perhaps, as j'et, but sure to come to the birth. "If we are 
not completely victorious, — I mean, able to remain at sea 
whilst the enemy must retire into port, — if we only make a 
Lord Howe's victory, take a part, and retire into port, Italy 
is lost." Criticism clearly is going on in his mind ; and not 
mere criticism (there is enough and to spare of that in the 
world, and not least in navies), but criticism judicious, well 
considered, and above all fruitful. The error of opportunity 
lost he had seen; the error of a partial victory — "a Lord 
Howe's victory," another opportunity lost — he intuitively 
anticipated for the Mediterranean, and was soon to see. He 
was already prepared to pass an accurate judgment instantl}', 
when he saw it. May we not almost hear, thundering back 
from the clouds that yet veiled the distant future of the Nile, 
the words, of which his thought was already pregnant, " You 
may be assured I will bring the French fleet to action the 
moment I can lay my hands upon them." 

The year closed with the British fleet watching, as best it 
could, the French ships, which, according to Nelson's expecta- 
tion, had given the blockaders the slip, and had made their 
junction at Toulon. There was now no great disparity in the 
nominal force of the two opponents, the British having four- 
teen ships-of-the-line, the French fifteen ; and it was quite in 
the enemy's power to fulfil his other prediction, by keeping 
Hotham in hot water during the winter. In the middle of 
November the " Agamemnon " had to go to Leghorn for ex- 
tensive repairs, and remained there, shifting her main and 
mizzen masts, until the 21st of December. Nelson, who had 
endured with unyielding cheerfulness the dangers, exposure, 
and sickliness of Calvi, found himself unable to bear patiently 



HIS MILITARY OPINIONS 129 

the comfort of quiet nights in a friendly port, while hot work 
might chance outside. " Lying in port is misery to me. My 
heart is almost broke to find the Agamemnon lying here, little 
better than a wreck. I own my sincere wish that the enemy 
Avould rest -quiet until we are ready for sea, and a gleam of 
hope sometimes crosses me that they will." " I am uneasy 
enough for fear they will fight, and Agamemnon not present, 
— it will almost break my heart ; but I hope the best, — that 
they are only boasting at present, and will be quiet until I am 
ready." "It is misery," he repeats, "for me to be laid up 
dismantled." 

It was during this period of comparative inactivity in port, 
followed by monotonous though arduous winter cruising of£ 
Toulon, which was broken only by equally dreary stays at 
San Fiorenzo, that Iselsoa found time to brood over the 
neglect of which he thought himself the victim, in the omis- 
sion of Lord Hood to notice more markedly his services in 
Corsica. It is usually disagreeable to the uninterested by- 
stander to see an excessive desire for praise, even under the 
guise of just recognition of work done. Words of complaint, 
whether heard or read, strike a discord to one who himself at 
the moment is satisfied with his surroundings. We all have 
an instinctive shrinking from the tones of a grumbler. Nel- 
son's insistence upon his grievances has no exemption from 
this common experience ; yet it must be remembered that 
these assertions of the importance of his own services, and 
dissatisfaction with the terms in which they had been men- 
tioned, occur chiefly, if not solely, in letters to closest rela- 
tions, — to his wife and uncle, — and that they would never 
have become known but for the after fame, which has caused 
all his most private correspondence to have interest and to be 
brought to light. As a revelation of character they have a^ 
legitimate interest, and they reveal, or rather they confirm, 
what is abundantly revealed throughout his life, — that in- 
tense longing for distinction, for admiration justly earned, for 
conspicuous exaltation above the level of his kind, which ex- 
isted in him to so great a degree, and which is perhaps the 
most potent — certainly the most universal — factor in mili- 
tary achievement. They reveal this ambition for honor, or 
glory, on its weak side ; on its stronger side of noble emula- 

9 



130 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tion, of self-devotion, of heroic action, his correspondence 
teems with its evidence in words, as does his life in acts. To 
quote the words of Lord Kad stock, who at this period, and 
until after the battle of Cape St. Vincent, was serving as one 
of the junior admirals in the Mediterranean, and retained his 
friendship through life, " a perpetual thirst of glory was ever 
raging within him." " He has ever showed himself as great 
a despiser of riches as he is a lover of glory ; and I am fully 
convinced in my own mind that he would sooner defeat the 
French fleet than capture fifty galleons." 

After all allowance made, however, it cannot be denied that 
there is in these complaints a tone which one regrets in such 
a man. The repeated "It was I " jars, by the very sharpness 
of its contrast, with the more generous expressions that 
abound in his correspondence. " When I reflect that I was 
the cause of re-attacking Bastia, after our wise generals gave 
it over, from not knowing the force, fancying it 2,000 men ; 
that it was I, who landing, joined the Corsicans, and with only 
my ship's party of marines, drove the French under the walls 
of Bastia ; that it was I, who, knowing the force in Bastia to 
be upwards of 4,000 men, as I have now only ventured to tell 
Lord Hood, lauded with only 1,200 men, and kept the secret 
till within this week past ; — what I must have felt during 
the whole siege may be easily conceived. Yet I am scarcely 
mentioned. I freely forgive, but cannot forget. This and 
much more ought to have been mentioned. It is known that, 
for two months, I blockaded Bastia with a squadron ; only 
fifty sacks of flour got into the town. At San Fiorenzo and 
Calvi, for two months before, nothing got in, and four French 
frigates could not get out, and are now ours. Yet my dili- 
gence is not mentioned ; and others, for keeping succours out 
of Calvi for a few summer months, are handsomely mentioned. 
JSicch things are. I have got upon a subject near my heart, 
which is full when I think of the treatment I have received. 
. . , The taking of Corsica, like the taking of St. Juan's, has 
cost me money. St. Juan's cost near £500 ; Corsica has cost 
me £300, an eye, and a cut across my back ; and my money, 
I find, cannot be repaid me." 

As regards the justice of his complaints, it seems to the 
author impossible to read carefully Hood's two reports, after 



I 



HIS LOVE OF DISTINCTION 131 

the fall of Bastia and that of Calvi, and not admit, either that 
Nelson played a very unimportant part in the general opera- 
tions connected with the reduction of Corsica, with which 
he became associated even before it was effectively under- 
taken, and so remained throughout ; or else that no due 
recognition was accorded to him in the admiral's despatches. 
Had he not become otherwise celebrated in his after life, he 
would from these papers be inferred to stand, in achievement, 
rather below than above the level of the other captains who 
from time to time were present. That this was unfair seems 
certain ; and notably at Calvi, where, from the distance of the 
operations from the anchorage, and the strained relations 
which kept Hood and Stuart apart, he was practically the 
one naval man upon whose discretion and zeal success de- 
pended. It is probable, however, that tlie failure to do him 
justice proceeded as much from awkward literary construc- 
tion, phrases badly turned, as from reluctance to assign due 
prominence to one subordinate among several others. 

How readily, yet how keenly, he derived satisfaction, even 
from slight tributes of recognition, is shown by the simplicity 
and pleasure with which he quoted to Mrs. Nelson the follow- 
ing words of Sir Gilbert Elliot, the Viceroy of Corsica, then 
and always a warm friend and admirer : " I know that you, 
who have had such an honourable share in this acquisition, 
will not be indifferent at the prosperity of the Country which, 
you have so much assisted to place under His Majesty's gov- 
ernment." " Whether these are words of course and to be 
forgotten," Avrote Nelson, " I know not ; they are pleasant, 
however, for the time." Certainly his demands for praise, if 
thus measured, were not extreme. 



CHAPTER V. 

Nelson's Services with the Fleet in the Mediterranean under 
Admiral Hotham. — Partial Fleet Actions of March 13 and 14, 
AND July 13. — Nelson ordered to command a Detached Squad- 
ron co-operating with the Austrian Army in the Eiviera of 
Genoa. 

January-July, 1795. Age, 36. 

FROM the naval point of view, as a strategic measure, the 
acquisition of Corsica by the British was a matter of 
great importance. It was, however, only one among several 
factors, which went to make up the general military and po- 
litical situation in the Mediterranean at the end of the year 
1794. Hitherto the exigencies of the well-nigh universal 
hostilities in which Erance had been engaged, and the anarch- 
ical internal state of that country, had prevented any decisive 
operations by her on the side of Italy, although she had, since 
1792, been formally at war with the Kingdom of Sardinia, of 
which Piedmont was a province. 

At the close of 1794 the conditions were greatly modified. 
In the north, the combined forces of Great Britain, Austria, 
and Holland had been driven out of France and Belgium, and 
the United Provinces were on the point of submission. On 
the east, the Austrians and Prussians had retreated to the 
far bank of the Rhine, and Prussia was about to withdraw 
from the coalition, which, three years before, she had been 
so eager to form. On the south, even greater success had 
attended the French armies, which had crossed the Pyrenees 
into Spain, driving before them the forces of the enemy, who 
also was soon to ask for peace. It was therefore probable 
that operations in Italy would assume greatly increased 
activity, from the number of French soldiers released else- 
where, as well as from the fact that the Austrians themselves, 
though they continued the war in Germany, had abandoned 



MILITARY CONDITIONS IN MEDITERRANEAN 133 

other portions of the continent which they had hitherto 
contested. 

The political and military conditions in Italy were, briefly, 
as follows. The region north of the Maritime Alps and in 
the valley of the Po was, for the most part, in arms against 
France, — the western province. Piedmont, as part of the 
Kingdom of Sardinia, whose capital was at Turin, and, to 
the eastward of it, the duchies of Milan and Mantua, as be- 
longing to Austria. The governments of the numerous small 
states into which Northern and Central Italy were then 
divided — Venice, Genoa, Tuscan}', the States of the Church, 
and others — sympathized generally with the opponents of 
France, but, as far as possible, sought to maintain a formal 
though difficult neutralit}^. The position of Genoa was the 
most embarrassing, because in direct contact with all the 
principal parties to the war. To the westward, her territory 
along the Piviera included Vintimiglia, bordering there on 
the county of Nice, and contained Vado Bay, the best anchor- 
age between Nice and Genoa. To the eastward, it embraced 
the Gulf of Spezia, continually mentioned by Nelson as Porto 
Especia. 

The occupation of the Piviera was of particular moment to 
the French, for it offered a road by which to enter Italy, — 
bad, indeed, but better far than those through the passes of 
the upper Alps. Skirting the sea, it afforded a double line 
of communications, by land and by water ; for the various 
detachments of their arm}-, posted along it, could in great 
degree be supplied by the small coasting-vessels of the Medi- 
terranean. So long, also, as it was in their possession, and 
they held passes of the Maritime Alps and Apennines, as they 
did in 1794, there was the possibility of their penetrating 
through them, to turn the left flank of the Sardinian army in 
Piedmont, which was, in fact, what Bonaparte accomplished ' 
two years later. These inducements had led the French to 
advance into the county of Nice, then belonging to Sardinia, 
which in the existing state of war it was perfectly proper for 
them to do ; but, not stopping there, they had pushed on past 
the Sardinian boundary into the neutral Riviera of Genoa, as 
far as Vado Bay, which they occupied, and where they still 
were at the end of 1794. 



134 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Genoa submitted under protest to this breach of her neu- 
trality, as she did botli before^ and after to similar insults 
from parties to the Avar. She derived some pecuniary benefit 
from the condition of affairs, — her ports, as well as those of 
Tuscany, immediately to the southward, becoming depots of a 
trade in grain, which supplied both the French army and the 
southern provinces of France. These food stuffs, absolutely 
essential to the French, were drawn chiefly from Sicily and 
the Barbary States, and could not be freely taken into French 
ports by the larger class of sea-going vessels, in face of the 
British fleet. They were, therefore, commonly transshipped 
in Leghorn or Genoa, and carried on by coasters. As so much 
Genoese seacoast was occupied by French divisions, it was 
practically impossible for British cruisers to distinguish 
between vessels carrying corn for the inhabitants and those 
laden for the armies, and entirely impossible to know that 
what was intended for one object would not be diverted to 
another. If, too, a vessel's papers showed her to be destined 
for Vintimiglia, near the extreme of the Genoese line, there 
could be no certainty that, having got so far, she might not 
quietly slip by into a French port, either Nice or beyond. The 
tenure of the neutral Eiviera of Genoa by the French army 
was a threat to the allies of Great Britain in Piedmont and 
Lombardy, as well as to the quasi-neutrals in Genoa, Tuscany, 
Venice, and the Papal States. Its further advance or suc- 
cesses would imperil the latter, and seriously alTect the 
attitude of Naples, hostile to the Republic, bat weak, timid, 
and unstable of purpose. On the other hand, the retention of 
its position, and much more any further advance, depended 
upon continuing to receive supplies by way of the sea. To 
do so by the shore route alone was not possible. Southern 
France itself depended upon the sea for grain, and could send 
nothing, even if the then miserable Corniche road could have 
sufficed, as the sole line of communications for forty thousand 
troops. 

Thus the transfer of Corsica to Great Britain had a very 
important bearing upon the military and political conditions. 
At the moment when Italy was about to become the scene of 

^ In the j'ear 1793 the French frigate " Modeste " had been forcibly taken 
from the harbor of Genoa by an English squadron. 



* 



STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF CORSICA 135 

operations which might, and in the event actually did, exercise 
a decisive influence upon the course of the general war, the 
British position was solidified by the acquisition of a naval 
base, unassailable while the sea remained in their control and 
the Corsicans attached to their cause, and centrally situated 
with reference to the probable scenes of hostilities, as well as 
to the points of political interest, on the mainland of Italy. 
The fleet resting upon it, no longer dependent upon the reluc- 
tant hospitality of Genoese or Tuscan ports, or upon the far 
distant Kingdom of Naples, was secure to keep in its station, 
whence it menaced the entire seaboard trade of France and 
the Riviera, as well as the tenure of the French army in the 
latter, and exerted a strong influence upon the attitude of both 
Genoa and Tuscany, who yielded only too easily to the nearest 
or most urgent pressure. The fleet to which Nelson belonged 
had spent the greater part of the year 1794 in securing for 
itself, as a base of operations, this position, by far the most 
suitable among those that could be considered at all. It 
remained now to utilize the advantage obtained, to make the 
situation of the French army in Italy untenable, by establish- 
ing an indisputable control of the sea. To this the holding of 
Corsica also contributed, indirectly ; for the loss of the island 
forced the French fleet to go to sea, in order, if possible, to 
expedite its re-conquest. In all the operations resulting from 
these various motives, Nelson bore a part as conspicuous and 
characteristic as he had done in the reduction of Corsica. 
Almost always on detached service, in positions approaching 
independent command, he was continually adding to his 
reputation, and, what was far more important, maturing the 
professional character, the seeds of which had been so bounti- 
fully bestowed upon him by nature. His reputation, won 
hard and step by step, obtained for him opportunity ; but it 
was to character, ripened by experience and reflection, that he 
owed his transcendent successes. 

The scheme for the government of the island as a British 
dependency, stated broadly, was that it should be administered 
by the Corsicans themselves, under a viceroy appointed by the 
British crown. Its military security was provided for by the 
control of the sea, and by British soldiers holding the fortified 
ports, — a duty for which the Corsicans themselves had not 



13G THE LIFE OF NELSON 

then the necessary training. Nelson, who did not yet feel 
the impossibility of sustaining a successful over-sea invasion, 
when control of the sea was not had, was anxious about the 
expected attempts of the French against the island, and urged 
the viceroy, by private letter, to see that Ajaccio, which he 
regarded as the point most favoi*able to a descent, was gar- 
risoned sufficiently to keep the gates shut for a few days. 
This caution did not then proceed from a distrust of the 
Corsicans' fidelity, without which neither France nor England 
could hold the island, as was shown by the quickness of its 
transfer two years later, when the inhabitants again revolted 
to France. " With this defence," he wrote, " I am confident 
Ajaccio, and I believe I may say the island of Corsica, would 
be perfectly safe until our fleet could get to the enemy, when 
I have no doubt the event would be what every Briton might 
expect." 

The repairs of the " Agamemnon " were completed before 
Nelson's anxious apprehensions of a battle taking place in his 
absence could be fulfilled. On the 21st of December, 1794, he 
sailed from Leghorn with the fleet, in company with which 
he remained from that time until the following July, when 
he was sent to the Riviera of Genoa on special detached ser- 
vice. He thus shared the severe cruising of that winter, as 
well as the abortive actions of the spring and early summer, 
where the admiral again contrived to lose opportunities of 
settling the sea campaign, and with it, not improbably, that 
of the land also. There were plain indications in the port of 
Toulon that a maritime enterprise of some importance was in 
contemplation. In the outer road lay fifteen sail-of-the-line, 
the British having then fourteen; but more significant of the 
enemy's purpose was the presence at Marseilles of Mty large 
transports, said to be ready. " I have no doubt," wrote Nel- 
son, "but Porto Especia is their object." This was a mistake, 
interesting as indicating the slight weight that Nelson at that 
time attributed to the deterrent effect of the British fleet " in 
being " upon such an enterprise, involving an open-sea passage 
of over a hundred miles, though he neither expressed nor 
entertained any uncertainty as to the result of a meeting, if 
the enemy were encountered. The French Government, not 
yet appreciating the inefficiency to which its navy had been 



MISTAKEN CONJECTURES 137 

reduced by many concurrent circumstances, was ready to dis- 
pute the control of the Mediterranean, and it contemplated, 
among other things, a demonstration at Leghorn, similar to 
that successfully practised at Naples in 1792, which might 
compel the Court of Tuscany to renounce the formally hostile 
attitude it had assumed at the bidding of Great Britain ; but 
it does not appear that there was any serious purpose of 
exposing a large detachment, in the attempt to hold upon the 
Continent a position, such as Spezia, with which secure com- 
municatiou by land could not be had. 

Though none too careful to proportion its projects to the 
force at its disposal, the Directory sufficiently understood that 
a detachment at Spezia could not be self-dependent, nor could, 
with any certainty, combine its operations with those of the 
army in the Eiviera; and also that, to be properly supported 
at all, there must be reasonably secure and unbroken com- 
munication, either by land or water, neither of which was 
possible until the British fleet was neutralized. The same 
consideration dictated to it the necessity of a naval victory, 
before sending out the expedition, of whose assembling the 
British were now hearing, and which was actually intended 
for Corsica ; although it was known that in the island there 
had already begun the revulsion against the British rule, 
which culminated in open revolt the following year. Owing 
to tlie dearth of seamen, the crews of the French ships were 
largely composed of soldiers, and it was thought that, after 
beating the enemy, four or five thousand of these might be at 
once thrown on shore at Ajaccio, and that afterwards the main 
body could be sent across in safety. First of all, however, 
control of the sea must be established by a battle, more or 
less decisive. 

On the 24th of February, 1795, the British fleet arrived at 
Leghorn, after a very severe cruise of over a fortnight. On 
the 2d of March Nelson mentioned, in a letter to his wife, that 
the French were said then to have a hundred and twenty-four 
transports full of troops, from which he naturally argued that 
they must mean to attempt something. On the evening of the 
8th, an express from Genoa brought Hotham word that they 
were actually at sea, fifteen ships-of-the-line, with half a 
dozen or more smaller vessels. He sailed in pursuit early 



138 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the next morning, having with him thirteen ^ British ships-of- 
the-line. and one Neapolitan seventy-four. Of the former, 
four were three-decked ships, carrying ninety-eight to one 
hundred guns, a class of vessel of which the French had but 
one, the " Sans Culottes," of one hundred and twenty, which, 
under the more dignified name of " L'Orient," afterwards met 
so tragic a fate at the Battle of the Nile ; but they had, in 
compensation, three powerful ships of eighty guns, much 
superior to the British seventy-fours. As, however, only 
partial engagements followed, the aggregate of force on either 
side is a matter of comparatively little importance in a Life 
of Nelson. 

Standing to the northward and westward, with a fresh 
easterly wind, the British fleet through its lookouts discov- 
ered the enemy on the evening of the day of sailing, and by 
the same means kept touch with them throughout the 10th 
and 11th ; but the bafltling airs, frequent in the Mediterranean, 
prevented the main body seeing them until the morning of 
the 12th. At daylight, then, they were visible from the 
"Agamemnon," in company with which were five British 
ships and the Neapolitan; the remainder of the fleet being so 
far to the eastward that their hulls were just rising out of the 
water. The British lying nearly becalmed, the French, Avho 
were to windward, bore down to within three miles ; but 
although, in Nelson's judgment, they had a fair opportunity 
to separate the advanced British shij^s, with which he was, 
from the main body, they failed to improve it. Nothing 
happened that day, and, a fresh breeze from the west spring- 
ing up at dusk, both fleets stood to the southAvard with it, the 
French being to windward. That night one of the latter, a 
seventy-four, having lost a topmast, Avas permitted to return 
to port. 

The next morning the wind Avas still southwest and squally. 
Hotham at daylight ordered a general chase, Avhich alloAved 
each ship a certain freedom of movement in endeavoring to 
close Avith the French. The " Agamemnon " had been Avell to 
the westward, from the start; and being a very handy, quick- 
working ship, as Avell as, originally at least, more than com- 

1 The " Berwick," seventy-four, had been left in San Fiorenzo for repairs. 
Putting to sea at this time, she fell in with the French fleet, and was taken. 






ACTION OF MARCH 13, 1795 139 

monly fast, was early in the day in a position where she had 
a fair chance for reaching the enemy. A favorable oppor- 
tunity soon occurred, one of those which so often show that, 
if a man only puts himself in tlie way of good luck, good luck 
is apt to offer. At 8 a. m. the eighty-gun ship '' Ca Ira," third 
from the rear in the French order, ran on board the vessel 
next ahead of her, and by the collision lost her fore and main 
topmasts. These falling overboard on the lee side — in this 
case the port ^ — not only deprived her of by far the greater 
part of her motive power, but acted as a drag on her progress, 
besides for the time preventing the working of the guns on 
that side. The " Ca Ira " dropped astern of her fleet. Al- 
though this eighty-gun ship was much bigger than his own, 
— "absolutely large enough to take Agamemnon in her hold," 
Nelson said, — the latter saw his chance, and instantly seized 
it with the promptitude characteristic of all his actions. The 
" Agamemnon," if she was not already on the port tack, oppo- 
site to that on which the fleets had been during the night, 
must have gone about at this time, and probably for this 
reason. She was able thus to fetch into the wake of the 
crippled vessel, which a frigate had already gallantly at- 
tacked, taking advantage of the uselessness of the French- 
man's lee batteries, encumbered with the wreckage of the 
masts. 

At 10 A.M., the " Ca Ira" and the ''Agamemnon" having 
passed on opposite tacks, the latter again went about and 
stood in pursuit under all sail, rapidly nearing the enemy, 
who at this time was taken in tow by a frigate. But although 
in this position the French ship could not train her broadside 
guns upon her smaller opponent, she could still work freely 
the half-dozen stern guns, and did so with much effect. " So 
true did she fire," noted Nelson, " that not a shot missed some 
part of the ship, and latterly the masts were struck every 
shot, which obliged me to open our fire a few minutes sooner 
than I intended, for it was my intention to have touched his 
stern before a shot was fired." At quarter before eleven, the 
" Agamemnon " was within a hundred yards of the " Ca Ira's " 
stern, and this distance she was able to keep until 1 p. m. 

1 The port side, or, as it was called in Nelson's day, the larboard side, is the 
left, looking from the stern to the how of a ship. 



i40 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Here, by the use of the helm and of the sails, the ship alter- 
nately turned her starboard side to the enemy to fire her bat- 
teries, and again resumed her course, to regain the distance 
necessarily lost at each deviation. This raking fire not only 
killed and wounded many of the " ^a Ira's " crew, and injured 
the hull, but, what was tactically of yet greater importance, 
preventing the replacing of the lost spars. Thus was entailed 
upon the French that night a crippled ship, which they could 
not in honor abandon, nor yet could save without fighting for 
her, — a tactical dilemma which was the direct cause of the 
next day's battle. 

Brief and cursory as is the notice of this action of the 
"Agamemnon" in Hotham's despatches, he mentions no other 
ship-of-the-line as engaged at this time, and states that she 
and the frigate were so far detached from the fleet, that they 
were finally obliged to retire on account of other enemy's 
vessels approaching. Nelson's journal says that two French 
ships, one of one hundred and twenty guns and a seventy-four, 
were at gun-shot distance on the bow of the ^' Ca Ira " when 
he began to attack her. These, with several others of their 
fleet, went about some time before one, at which hour the 
frigate, towing the disabled ship, tacked herself, and also got 
the latter around. The "Agamemnon" standing on, she and 
the " (^Si Ira " now crossed within half pistol-range ; but, the 
French guns being too much elevated, the shot passed over 
their antagonist, who lost in this day's work only seven men 
wounded. Nelson then again tacked to follow, but by this 
time the French admiral had apparently decided that his 
crippled vessel must be rescued, and his fleet no longer defied 
by a foe so inferior in strength. Several of the enemy were 
approaching, when Hothara made a signal of recall, which 
Nelson on this occasion at least had no hesitation in obeying, 
and promptly. There was no pursuit, the hostile commander- 
in-chief being apparently satisfied to save the " Ca Ira " for 
the moment, without bringing on a general engagement. 

In this affair, what is mainly to be noted in Nelson is not 
the personal courage, nor yet even the professional daring, or 
the skill which justified the daring. It may be conceded that 
all these were displayed in a high degree, but they can 
scarcely be claimed to have exceeded that shown by other 



\ Wind 



<3 F' 



c' ^ c^ C c 



^A 



Agamemnon b\ Qa Ira 

March /J, /795. 



B' 



A — Agojtieinnon 

C - (^a I rev 

F — French, Ships of Line 

B — Nearest Britishv do- 



i 



ACTION OF MARCH 13, 1795 141 

officers, not a few, when equally tried. What is rather strik- 
ing, account for it how we will, is that Nelson, here as always, 
was on hand when opportunity offered ; that after three days 
of chase he, and he only, was so far to the front as to be able to 
snatch the fleeting moment. " On looking round," he says at 
ten o'clock, when about to begin the action, " I saw no ship- 
of-the-line within several miles to support me ; the Captain 
was the nearest on our lee-quarter." With the looseness and 
lack of particularity which characterize most logs and 
despatches remaining from those days, and make the compre- 
hension of naval engagements, other than the greatest, a 
matter of painful and uncertain inference, it is impossible 
accurately to realize the entire situation ; but it seems difficult 
to imagine that among all the other thirteen captains, " where 
emulation was common to all and zeal for his Majesty's ser- 
vice the general description of the fleet," to use Hotham's 
words, none could have been on the spot to support so prom- 
ising an attempt, had there been "common" that sort of 
emulation w^hich takes a man ever to the front, not merely in 
battle but at all times, — the spirit that will not and cannot 
rest while anything remains to be done, ever pressing onward 
to the mark. To this unquestionably must be added the 
rapid comprehension of a situation, and the exceeding promp- 
titude with which Nelson seized his opportunity, as well as 
the tenacious intrepidity Avith which he held to his position 
of advantage, despite the imminent threat to his safety from 
the uninjured and gigantic " Sans Culottes," barely out of 
gunshot to windward. It is right also to note the accessi- 
bility to advice, a feature of his genial and kindly tempera- 
ment, to which he admitted much of the success was due. 
The trait is not rare in mankind in general, but it is excep- 
tional in men of a character so self-reliant and decided as 
Nelson. " If the conduct of the Agamemnon on the 13th," 
he generously wrote, " was by any means the cause of our 
success on the 14th, Lieutenant Andrews has a principal 
share in the merit, for a more proper opinion was never given 
by an officer than the one he gave me on the loth, in a situa- 
tion of great difficulty." 

The same hot spirit, the same unwearying energy, made 
itself still more manifest the next day, when were to be 



142 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

garnered the results of his own partial, yet, in its degree, 
decisive action of the 13th. " Sure I am," said he afterwards, 
''had I commanded our fleet on the 14th, that either the 
whole French fleet would have graced ray triumph, or I should 
have been in a confounded scrape." A confounded scrape he 
would have been in on the 13th, and on other days also, great 
and small, had there been a different issue to the risks he 
dared, and rightly dared, to take. Of what man eminent in 
war, indeed, is not the like- true? It is the price of fame, 
which he who dare not pay must forfeit ; and not fame only, 
but repute. 

During the following night the "Sans Culottes" quitted 
the Prencli fleet. The wind continued southerly, both fleets 
standing to the westward, the crippled '' (^a Ira " being taken 
in tow by the " Censeur," of seventy-four guns. At daylight 
of March 14, being about twenty miles southwest from Genoa, 
these two were found to be much astern and to leeward of 
their main body, — that is, northeast from it. The British lay 
in the same direction, and were estimated by Nelson to be 
three and a half miles from the disabled ship and her consort, 
five miles from the rest of the French. At 5.30 a. m. a smart 
breeze sprang up from the northwest, which took the British 
aback, but enabled them afterwards to head for the two sepa- 
rated French ships. Apparently, from Nelson's log, this 
wind did not reach the main body of the enemy, a circumstance 
not uncommon in the Mediterranean. Two British seventy- 
fours, the " Captain " and the " Bedford," in obedience to 
signals, stood down to attack the "Censeur" and the "Ca 
Ira ; " and, having in this to undergo for twenty minutes a fire 
to which they could not repl}'^, were then and afterwards 
pretty roughly handled. They were eventually left behind, 
crippled, as their own fleet advanced. The rest of the British 
were meantime forming in line and moving down to sustain 
them. The French main body, keej^ing the southerly wind, 
wore in succession to support their separated ships, and 
headed to pass between them and their enemies. The latter, 
having formed, stood also towards these two, which now lay 
between the contestants as the prize to the victor. 

Apparently, in these manoeuvres, the leading British ships 
ran again into the belt of southerly wind, — which the French 




I 



PARTIAL FLEET ACTION, MARCH 14, 1795 143 

kept throughout, — while part of the centre and rear were left 
becalmed, aud had little or no share in the cannonade that 
followed. Under these conditions the resolution of the 
French admiral seems to have faltered, for instead of passing 
to leeward — north — of the enemy's line, which was quite in 
his power, aud so covering his endangered ships, he allowed 
the latter to be cut off, thus insuring their surrender. His 
fleet kept to windward of the British, passing fairly near the 
two leading ships, the " Illustrious " and the " Courageux," 
who thus underwent a " concentration by defiling," that took 
the main and mizzen masts out of both, besides killing and 
wounding many of their people. The '•' Princess Royal " and 
"Agamemnon," which came next, could only engage at long 
range. "The enemy's fleet kept the southerly wind," wrote 
Nelson in his journal, " which enabled them to keep their 
distance, which was very great. At 8 A. m. they began to 
pass our line to windward, and the Ca Ira and Le Censeur 
were on our lee side ; therefore the Illustrious, Courageux, 
Princess Tioyal, and Agamemnon were obliged to fight on 
both sides of the ship." At five minutes past ten A. m. both 
the French vessels struck, the "^a Ira" having lost her three 
masts, and the " Censeur " her mainmast. It was past one 
p. M. when firing wholly ceased ; and the enemy then crowded 
all possible sail to the westward, the British fleet lying with 
their heads to the southeast. 

"When the British line was forming, between seven and 
eight in the morning, Nelson was directed by Vice-Admiral 
Goodall, the second in command, to take his station astern of 
his flagship, the "Princess Eoyal," of ninety guns. Immedi- 
ately behind the "Agamemnon " came the " Britannia," carry- 
ing Hotham's flag. This position, and the lightness of the 
wind, serve to explain how Nelson came to take the step he 
mentions in several letters ; going on board the "Britannia," 
after the two French vessels struck, and urging the comman- 
der-in-chief to leave the prizes in charge of the British frigates 
and crippled ships-of-the-line, and vigorously to pursue the 
French, who having lost four ships out of their fleet, by 
casualty or capture, were now reduced to eleven sail. " I 
went on board Admiral Hotham as soon as our firing grew 
slack in the van, and the Ca Ira and the Censeur had struck, 



144 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

to propose to him leaving our two crippled ships, the two 
prizes, and four frigates, to themselves, and to pursue the 
enemy ; but he, much cooler than myself, said, ' We must be 
contented, we have done very well.' Now, had we taken ten 
sail, and had allowed the eleventh to escape, when it had been 
possible to have got at her, I could never have called it well 
done. Goodall backed me ; I got him to write to the admiral, 
but it would not do : we should have had such a day as I be- 
lieve the annals of England never produced." 

Nelson here evidently assumes that it was possible to have 
got at the French fleet. After a man's reputation has been 
established, there is always the danger of giving undue weight 
to his ojjinions, expressed at an earlier time, somewhat 
casually, and not under the sobering sense of responsibility. 
Hotham may have questioned the possibility of getting at the 
French effectively, having regard to the fickle lightness of 
the wind then prevalent, and to the fact that, besides the two 
ships partially dismasted and for the moment useless, two 
others, the " Captain " and the " Bedford," had suffered 
severely in sails and rigging. He would also doubtless con- 
sider that the three-decked shij)S, of which he had four, were 
notoriously bad sailers, and sure to drop behind if the chase 
lasted long, leaving to eight ships, including the "Neapoli- 
tan," the burden of arresting the enemy, who had shown very 
fair offensive powers in the morning. Nelson was not blind 
to these facts, and not infrequently alludes to them. *' Had 
we only a breeze, I have no doubt we should have given a 
destructive blow to the enemy's fleet." '' Sure I am, that 
had the breeze continued, so as to have allowed us to close 
with the enemy, we should have destroyed their whole fleet." 
Whether these remarks apply to the heat of the engagement, 
or to the proposed chase, which Hotham declined to permit, 
is not perfectly clear ; but inasmuch as the second part of 
the action of the 14th consisted, actually, in the French filing 
by the " Courageux " and the *' Illustrious," upon whom their 
fire was thus concentrated, while the rest of the British were 
becalmed out of gunshot, it is very possible he was thinking 
of that incident only, which doubtless would have taken a 
very different turn had the main body been able to come 
down. His wish to pursue is unquestionable, both from his 



MILITAEY OPINIONS 145 

assertion and from the whole character of his career hefore 
and after ; and a casual remark, written ten days after the 
affair, shows his opinion confirmed by time. " Had our good 
admiral followed the blow, we should probably have done 
more, but the risk was thought too great." 

The question attracts attention, both impersonally, as of 
military interest, and also as bearing upon Nelson's correct- 
ness of judgment, and professional characteristics, at this 
time. As regards the amouut of wind, it is sufficient to say 
that the French fleet, having borne away to the westward in 
the afternoon, was next day out of sight.^ Most of the 
British might equally have been out of sight from the posi- 
tion in which they remained. As for the risk — of course 
there was risk ; but the whole idea of a general chase rests 
upon the fact that, for one reason or another, the extreme 
speed of the ships in each fleet will vary, and that it is 
always probable that the fastest of the pursuers can overtake 
the slowest of the pursued. The resulting combats compel 
the latter either to abandon his ships, or to incur a general 
action, which, from the fact of his flight, it is evident he has 
reason to avoid. In this case many of the retreating French 
were crippled, — some went off towed by frigates, and some 
without bowsprits. Unquestionably, the pursuers who thus 
engage may be overpowered before those following them 
come up; but the balance of chances is generally in their 
favor, and in the particular instance would have been mark- 
edly so, as was shown by the results of the two days' fighting, 
which had proved the superior quality of the British ships' 
companies. 

The fact is, neither Hotham nor his opponent, Martin, was 
willing to hazard a decisive naval action, but wished merely 
to obtain a temporary advantage, — the moment's safety, no 
risks. " I have good reason," wrote Hotharn in his despatch, 
" to hope, from the enemy's steering to the westward after 
having passed oiir fleet, that whatever might have been their 
design, their intentions are for the jpresent frustrated^ It is 
scarcely necessary to say that a man who looks no further 
ahead than this, who fails to realize that the destruction of 
the enemy's fleet is the one condition of permanent safety to 

1 Nelson to the Puke of Clarence, March 15, 1795. (Nicolas.) 
10 



14G THE LIFE OF NELSON 

his cause, will not rise to the conception presented to him on 
his quarter-deck by Nelson. The latter, whether by the sheer 
intuition of genius, which is most probable, or by the result 
of well-ordered reasoning, which is less likely, realized fully 
that to destroy the French fleet was the one thing for which 
the British fleet was there, and the one thing by doing which 
it could decisively affect the war. As he wrote four years 
later to St. Vincent, " Not one moment shall be lost in bring- 
ing the enemy to battle ; for I consider the best defence for 
his Sicilian Majesty's dominions is to place myself alongside 
the French." 

Yet Nelson was far from unconscious of the difficulties of 
Hotham's position, or from failing duly to allow for them. 
"Admiral Hotham has had much to contend Avith, a fleet half- 
manned, and in every respect inferior to the enemy; Italy 
calling him to her defence, our newly acquired kingdom ^ 
calling might and main, our reinforcements and convoy hourly 
expected ; and all to be done without a force by any means 
adequate to it." Add to this the protection of British trade, 
of whose needs Nelson was always duly sensible. Yet, as 
one scans this list of troubles, Avith the query how to meet 
them running in his mind, it is scarcely possible not to see 
that each and every difficulty would have been solved by a 
crushing pursuit of the beaten French, preventing their again 
taking the sea. The British admiral had in his control no 
means to force them out of port. Therefore, when out, he 
should by no means have allowed them to get back. It is 
only just to Hotham, who had been a capable as well as 
gallant captain, to say that he had objected to take the chief 
command, on account of his health. 

Nelson was delighted with his own share in these affairs, 
and with the praise he received from others for his conduct, 
— especially that on the 13th. He was satisfied, and justly, 
that his sustained and daring grapple with the " Ca Ira," in 
the teeth of her fleet, had been the effective cause of the next 
day's action and consequent success. It was so, in truth, 
and it presented an epitome of what the 14th and 15th ought 
to have witnessed, — a persistent clinging to the crippled 
ships, in order to force their consorts again into b^^ttle. 

^ Corsica. 



DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS 147 



" You will participate," he wrote to his uncle, " in the pleas- 
ure I must have felt in being the great cause of our success. 
Could I have been supported, I would have had Ca Ira on the 
13th." Elliot, the Viceroy of Corsica, wrote to him : " I 
certainly consider the business of the 13th of March as a 
very capital feature in the late successful contest with the 
French fleet ; and the part which the Agamemnon had in it 
must be felt by every one to be one of the circumstances that 
gave lustre to this event, and rendered it not only useful, but 
peculiarly honourable to the British arms." " So far," added 
Nelson, in quoting this to his wife, " all hands agree in giving 
me the praises which cannot but be comfortable to me to the 
last moment of my life." He adds then a reflection, evincing 
that he was assimilating some of the philosophy of life as 
well as of fighting. " The time of my being left out here by 
Lord Hood," which he had so much regretted, "I may call 
well spent ; had I been absent, how mortified should I now 
be. What has happened may never happen to any one again, 
that only one ship-of-the-line out of fourteen should get into 
action with the French fleet for so long a time as two hours 
and a half, and with such a ship as the Ca Ira." It may be 
of interest to mention that the French fleet, upon this occa- 
sion, was largely composed of the vessels which three years 
later were destroyed by him at the Battle of the Nile. 

In all his interests, ambitions, and gratification with success 
and praise, he at this period writes fully and intimately to his 
wife, between whom and himself there evidently still existed, 
after these two years of absence, a tender and affectionate con- 
fidence. " It is with an inexpressible pleasure I have received 
your letters, with our father's. I rejoice that my conduct 
gives you pleasure, and I trust I shall never do anything 
which will bring a blush on your face. Eest assured you are 
never absent from my thoughts." When looking forward to 
the action of March 14, he tells her : " Whatever may be my 
fate, I have no doubt in my own mind but that my condvict will 
be such as will not bring a blush on the face of my friends ; the 
lives of all are in the hands of Him who knows best whether 
to preserve mine or not ; to His will do I resign myself. My 
character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with 
disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied : " and 



148 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

he signs himself with unwonted tenderness, " Ever your most 
faithful and affectionate husband." Save of the solemn hours 
before Trafalgar, when another image occupied his thoughts, 
this is the only personal record we have of the feelings with 
which this man, dauntless above his fellows, went into battle. 
He refrains thoughtfully from any mention of his health that 
may cause her anxiety, which she had shown herself over 
weak and worrying to bear; but he speaks freely of all that 
passes, confiding that with her he need have no reserves, even 
in a natural self-praise. "This I can say, that all I have 
obtained I owe to myself, and to no one else, and to you I may 
add, that my character stands high with almost all Europe. 
Even the Austrians knew my name perfectly." While silent 
on the subject of illness, he admits now that his eye had 
grown worse, and was in almost total darkness, besides being 
very painful at times ; " but never mind," he adds cheeringly, 
"I can see very well with the other." 

It is instructive to note, in view of some modern debated 
questions, that, despite the recent success, Nelson was by no 
means sure that the British fleet could defend Corsica. " I 
am not even now certain Corsica is safe," he wrote on the 2oth 
of March, "if they undertake the expedition with proper 
spirit." The threat, never absent while the French fleet re- 
mained, was emphasized by the arrival of six ships-of-the-line 
from Brest, which reached Toulon on the 4th of April, 
materially altering the complexion of affairs in the Mediterra- 
nean, and furnishing an instructive instance of the probable 
punishment for opportunity imperfectly utilized, as on the 
14th of March. Great discontent was felt at the apparent 
failure of the Admiralty to provide against this chance. 
" Hotham is very much displeased with them," wrote Nelson, 
" and certainly with reason ; " and doubtless it is satisfactory 
to believe, rightly or wrongly, that our disadvantages are due 
to the neglect of others, and not to our own shortcomings. 

Although the nominal force of the French was thus raised 
to twenty of the line, the want of seamen, and the absence of 
discipline, prevented their seizing the opportunity offered by 
the temporary inferiority of the British, reduced to thirteen 
besides two Neapolitans, in whose efficiency, whether justly or 
not, Nelson placed little confidence. At this critical moment, 



HIS OPINION OF LORD HOOD 149 

with a large British military convoy expected, and the fleet, 
to use his impatient expression, " skulking in port," a Jacobin 
outbreak occurred in Toulon, and the seamen assumed the 
opera-houffe role of going ashore to assist in deliberations 
upon the measures necessary to save the country. Before 
they were again ready to go to sea, the convoy had arrived. 
On the 7th of June, however, the French again sailed from 
Toulon, seventeen ships-of-the-line ; and the following day 
Nelson, writing to his brother, thus gave vent to the bitterness 
of his feelings : " We have been cruising off Minorca for a 
long month, every moment in expectation of reinforcements 
from England. Great good fortune has hitherto saved us, 
what none in this fleet could have expected for so long a time. 
Near two months we have been skulking from them. Had 
they not got so much cut up on the 14th of March, Corsica, 
Eome, and Naples would, at this moment, have been in their 
possession, and may yet, if these people [the Admiralty] do 
not make haste to help us. I am out of spirits, although 
never better in health." 

His depression was due less to the inadequacy of the British 
fleet than to the dismissal of Lord Hood from the command, 
news of which was at this time received. When about to sail 
from England, to resume his duty as commander-in-chief, he 
got into a controversy with the Government about the force 
necessary in the Mediterranean, and, giving oflieuce by the 
sharpness of his language, was ordered to haul down his flag. 
He never again went to sea. Nelson deplored his loss in 
terms unusually vivacious : " Oh, miserable Board of Admi- 
ralty ! They have forced the first oflicer in our service away 
from his command." In more temperate but well-weighed 
words, he said : " This fleet must regret the loss of Lord 
Hood, the best officer, take him altogether, that England has 
to boast of. Lord Howe is certainly a great officer in the 
management of a fleet, but that is all. Lord Hood is equally 
great in all situations which an admiral can be placed in." In 
the judgment of the present writer, this estimate of Hood is 
as accurate as it is moderate in expression. It was nothing 
less than providential for the French that he was not in com- 
mand on the 14th of March, or in the yet more trivial and 
discreditable affair of July 13th, when, to use again Nelson's 



150 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

words, "To say how much we wanted Lord Hood at that 
time, is to say, will you have all the French fleet or no 
action ? " 

On the 14th of June the expected reinforcement from Eng- 
land, nine ships-of-the-line, joined the fleet ofE Minorca; and a 
few days later a large convoy also arrived, with which the 
whole body of ships of war put into San Fiorenzo Bay on the 
29th. This concluded for Nelson a period of three months, 
counting from the action of March 14th, of pretty monotonous 
cruising Avith the fleet, the last in which he was to take part 
until his admiral's flag was hoisted, two years later. Though 
unmarked by any event of importance, the time was passed 
not unprofitably to himself, for his correspondence bears marks 
of fruitful reflection, not merely upon the evident inadequacy 
of his commander-in-chief to the position he unwillingly occu- 
pied, but upon the character of the operations and the line of 
conduct that ought to be followed. If he does criticise the 
former's want of head for enterprise, he formulates for him- 
self a general principle which showed its vital influence in his 
future career. ** After all my complaints, I have no doubt 
but, if we can get close to the enemy, we shall defeat any plan 
of theirs ; hut we ought to have our ideas beyond mere defensive 
rneasurefi.'' 

Among other matters for reflection, he had at this time a 
curious cause of anxiety, lest he should be promoted to flag 
rank, or rather that, being promoted, he should be obliged to 
return to England at once, as there would be too many 
admirals in the Mediterranean to permit his retention. A 
rumor was current, which proved to be correct, that there 
would be a large promotion on the 1st of June, the first anni- 
versary of the victory celebrated by that name. Being then 
forty-six on the list of captains. Nelson feared that it might 
include him ; in which case, if not permitted to hoist his flag 
where he was, not only would he lose his ardently desired 
opportunities for distinction, — "not an hour this war will I, 
if possible, be out of active service," — but he would be put 
to much inconvenience and loss. " If they give me my flag, I 
shall be half ruined: unless I am immediately employed- in 
this country, I should, by the time I landed in England, be a 
loser, several hundred pounds out of pocket." To be taken 



41 



APPOINTED COLONEL OF MARINES 151 

" from actual service would distress me much, more especially 
as I almost believe these people will be mad euougli to come 
out." He escaped this disappointment, however, for the pro- 
motion left him still on the post-captains' list, seven from its 
head; but lie received, what was both complimentary and 
profitable, the honorary rank of Colonel of Marines, — a sine- 
cure appointment, of which there were then four, given to 
post-captains of distinguished services, and vacated by them 
upon promotion. These are now discontinued, and replaced, as 
a matter of emolument, by Good Service Pensions. Nelson 
heard later that this reward had been conferred upon him, not 
merely as a favor, but with a full recognition of all his claims 
to it. "The Marines have been given to me in the hand- 
somest manner. The answer given to many was, the King 
knew no officer who had served so much for them as myself." 

These promotions came timely to insure for him an em- 
ployment particularly suited to his active temperament and 
fearlessness of responsibility, but which, though the fittest 
man for it, he might, with less seniority, not have received 
from Hotham, despite the well-known confidence in him 
shown by Hood. Since the spring opened, the Austrians and 
their allies, the Sardinians, had been waiting, ostensibly at 
least, for assistance from the Navy, to begin a forward move- 
ment, the first object of which Avas the possession of Vado 
Bay as a safe anchorage for the fleet. Until the arrival of 
Man and the convoy, Hotham had not felt strong enough to 
spare the required force ; but now, after the ships had filled 
their wants from the transports, he, on the 4th of July, de- 
tached Nelson, with the " Agamemnon " and six smaller 
vessels, to co-operate with the Austrian commander-in-chief. 
The latter had begun his movement on the 13th of June, 
passing through Genoese territor}^ despite the remonstrances 
of the Republic, whose neutrality could claim but slight re- 
gard from one belligerent, when she had already permitted 
the occupation of so much of her shore line by the other. 
The Ei-encli had fallen back, Avhen attacked, abandoning Vado 
Bay to the enemy, whose headquarters were established at 
that point. 

Nelson, having sailed with four of his squadron, fell in Avith 
the French fleet of seventeen of the line, off the Riviera, on 



152 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the 6tli of July. He liad, of course, to retreat, which he did 
upon San Fiorenzo, to join the body of the fleet. On the 
morning of the 7th the " Agamemnon " and her followers, 
with the French in close pursuit, were sighted from the an- 
chorage, much to the surprise of the admiral, who knew the 
enemy had come out, but, upon the information of the Aus- 
trian general, believed them returned to Toulon. Why he 
had not more accurate news from lookout frigates is not clear; 
but, as jSTelson said, he took things easy, and he had persuaded 
himself that they had left harbor only to exercise their men. 
As it was, the "Agamemnon" was hard pressed, but escaped, 
chiefly through the enemy's lack of seamanship. The fleet, 
when she arrived, was in the midst of refitting and watering, 
but succeeded in getting to sea the following morning in search 
of the enemy, who meantime had disappeared. 

Precise information of the French whereabouts could not be 
obtained until the evening of the 12th, when two of the Brit- 
ish lookout ships reported that they had been seen a few hours 
before to the southwest, south of the Hyeres Islands. The 
fleet made sail in that direction. During the night a heavy 
gale came on from west-northwest, out of the Gulf of Lyons, 
which split the main-topsails of several British ships. At 
daybreak the enemy were discovered in the southeast, standing 
north to close the land. After some elaborate manoeuvring — 
to reach one of those formal orders, often most useful, but 
which the irregular Mediterranean winds are prone to dis- 
arrange as soon as completed — the admiral at 8 a. m. signalled 
a general chase. The British being to windward, and the 
breeze fresh, the half-dozen leading ships had at noon closed 
the enemy's rear within three-quarters of a mile ; but, from 
their relative positions, as then steering, the guns of neither 
could be used effectively. At this time a shift of wind to 
north headed off both fleets, which put their bows to the 
eastward, throwing the British advanced vessels, to use 
Nelson's expression, into line abreast, and bringing to bear 
the broadsides of the ships, of both fleets, that were within 
range. The action then began, the British fire being directed 
mainly upon the French rear ship, the " Alcide," which sur- 
rendered at about 2 p. m., and soon afterwards blew up. The 
wind had meanwhile changed again to the eastward, giving 



PARTIAL FLEET ACTION, JULY 13, 1795 153 

the weather-gage to the French, most of whom were consider- 
ably nearer the shore than their opponents, and better sailers. 

Up to this time Nelson, who in the forenoon had thought 
there was every prospect of taking every ship in the French 
fleet, still felt almost certain that- six would be secured ; but, 
to use his own words, it was now "impossible to close." lu 
the space between the ships engaged, and to leeward, the 
light air seems to have been killed by the cannonading; 
whereas the French, who were now to windward, still re- 
ceived enough to draw slowly away. Hothara, being in one 
of the very worst sailers in the fleet, if not in the Navy, had 
fallen eight miles astern, and not seeing clearly how things 
were going, made at this time a signal of recall, which was 
certainly premature. It seems a not improper comment that, 
in light and baffling weather, such as that of the Mediter- 
ranean, the commander-in-chief should have been in a fast 
and handy ship, able at the least to keep him within eyeshot 
of the decisive scene. Remaining in the "Britannia" may 
have been due to the natural unwillingness of an invalid to 
quit his well-ordered surroundings, by which even St. Vincent 
was led to take a first-rate ship away with himself at a criti- 
cal moment; but, if so, it only emphasizes the absolute 
necessity of physical vigor to a commander-in-chief. 

Nelson had again managed to keep the "Agamemnon" well 
to the front, for the other ships that succeeded in getting 
into action were almost wholly from among those Avhich had 
recently arrived from England with Rear-Admiral Man. 
These, being fresh from home, should naturally outsail a ship 
now two and a half years in commission, and which, not long 
after, had to be wrapped with hawsers to hold her together. 
In his comments on the action he says comparatively little of 
the signal of recall, which, though ill-timed, he does not seem 
to have thought affected the result materially ; but he was 
utterly dissatisfied with the previous management of the 
business, and into the causes of this dissatisfaction it is de- 
sirable to look, as bearing at once upon his natural military 
characteristics, and the development they received from time 
and thought. "The scrambling distant fire was a farce," he 
wrote ; " but if one fell by such a fire, what might not have 
been expected had our whole fleet engaged? Improperly 



154 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

as the part of the fleet which fired got into action, we took 
one ship ; but the subject is unpleasant, and I shall have done 
with it." The criticism, though far from explicit, evidently 
bears upon the manner in which the fleet was handled, from 
the moment the enem}'- was sighted until the firing began. 
During the latter, Man was the senior officer on the spot, and 
Nelson does not blame him ; on the contrary, punning on the 
name, says, "He is a good man in every sense of the word." 

The precise working of his thought can only be inferred. 
" The whole fleet " failed to get into action. Why ? Because 
the signal for a general chase was delayed from 4 to 8 a. m., 
pending certain drill-ground manoeuvres, upon whose results, 
however well intended, no dependence could be placed in 
Mediterranean weather. During these four hours the wind 
was fresh, — the heel of a short summer's gale, invaluable to 
both sides, — and the enemy were using it to close the shore, 
where wind, the sole dependence for motive power, baffles 
most. Had the fastest British ships, under a competent flag- 
officer, utilized that time and that wind, there was, to put the 
case most mildly, the chance that they could repeat, upon the 
French rear, the same part the " Agamemnon " alone had 
played with the " ^a Ira," — and such a chance, were it no 
more, should not have been dawdled with. "Missed the 
opportunity," — the fatal words, "it might have been." Is 
it far-fetched to bee in his reflections upon "this miserable 
action," as it is styled independently by James and himself, 
the forecast of the opening sentence of his celebrated order 
before Trafalgar ? — " Thinking it almost impossible to bring 
a fleet of forty sail-of-the-line ^ into a line of battle in vari- 
able winds, thick weather, and other circumstances which 
must occur, without such a loss of time that the opjportuuity 
would probably he lost of bringing the enemy to battle in such a 
manner as to make the business decisive, I have therefore made 
up my mind — " Or, again, as he saw Man dragged off — with 
too little remonstrance, it may be — by a superior, who could 
by no means see what was the state of the action, is there not 
traceable a source of the feeling, partly inborn, partly 
reasoned, that found expression in the generous and yet most 
wise words of the same immortal order? — "The second in 
^ There were twenty-three present on July 13, 1795. 



HIS IMILITARY OPINIONS 155 

command will [in fact command his line and]/ after my in- 
tentions are made known to him, have the entire direction of 
his line to make the attack upon the enemy, and to follow up 
the blow until they are captured or destroyed." Whether 
such words be regarded as the labored result of observation 
and reflection, or whether as the flashes of intuition, with 
which genius penetrates at once to the root of a matter, with- 
out the antecedent processes to which lesser minds are sub- 
jected, — in either case they are instructive when linked with 
the events of his career here under discussion, as corrobo- 
rative indications of natural temperament and insight, which 
banish altogether the thought of mere fortuitous valor as the 
one explanation of Nelson's successes. 

With this unsatisfactory affair, Nelson's direct connection 
with the main body of the fleet came to an end for the re- 
mainder of Hotham's command. It is scarcely necessary to 
add that the prime object of the British fleet at all times, and 
not least in the Mediterranean in 1795, — the control of the 
sea, — continued as doubtful as it had been at the beginning 
of the year. The dead weight of the admiral's having upon 
his mind the Toulon fleet, undiminished in force despite two 
occasions for decisive action, was to be clearly seen in the 
ensuing operations. On this, also, Nelson did much thinking, 
as passing events threw light upon the consequences of miss- 
ing opportunities. "The British fleet," he wrote, five years 
later, and no man better knew the facts, " could have prevented 
the invasion of Italy ; and, if our friend Hotham had kept his 
fleet on that coast, I assert, and you will agree with me, no 
army from France could have been furnished with stores or 
provisions ; even men could not have marched." But how 
keep the fleet on the Italian coast, while the French fleet in 
full vigor remained in Toulon ? What a curb it was appeared 
again in the next campaign, and even more clearly, because 
the British were then commanded by Sir John Jervis, a man 
not to be checked by ordinary obstacles. From the decks of 
his flagship Nelson, in the following April, watched a convoy 
passing close in shore. " To get at them was impossible be- 

1 The words in brackets were ei'ased in the rough draft, but are here in- 
serted, because they emphasize the underlying thought, that the second was 
to have real command, not wait nor look for signals, nor yet fear them. 



156 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

fore they anchored under such batteries as would have crippled 
our fleet ; and, had such an event happened, in the present state 
of the enemijs fleet, Tuscany, Naples, Rome, Sicily, &c., would 
have fallen as fast as their ships could have sailed along the 
coast. Our fleet is the only saviour at present for those 
countries.'' 



CHAPTER VI. 

Nelson's Command of a Detached Squadron on the Eiviera of 
Genoa, until the Defeat of the Austrians at the Battle of 
LoANo. — Sir John Jervis appointed Commander-in-Chief in the 
Mediterranean. 

July-December, 1795. Age, 37. 

AFTER the action of July 13, Nelson was again clespatcliecl 
upon his mission to co-operate with the Austrians on 
the Riviera. His orders, dated July 15, were to confer first 
with the British minister at Genoa, and thence to proceed 
with his squadron to the Austrian headquarters at Vado Bay. 
The seniority he had now attained made his selection for this 
detached and responsible service less evidently flattering than 
Hood's preferment of him to such positions when he Avas 
junior in rank ; but the duty had the distinction of being not 
only arduous from the purely naval standpoint, but delicate 
in the diplomatic management and tact required. Although 
Great Britain at that period was rarely slack in resorting to 
strong and arbitrary measures in dealing with neutrals, when 
her interests seemed to demand it, she was always exceedingly 
desirous to avoid causes of needless offence. The exigencies 
of Southern France, and of both the opposing armies in 
the Riviera, had created a busy neutral trade, occupied in 
supplying all parties to the war, as well as the inhabitants of 
Genoese towns then in military occupation by the French. 
Although the latter and the Austrians had both openly disre- 
garded the neutrality of Genoa, it was the policy of Great 
Britain now to manifest respect for it as far as possible, and 
at the same time not to raise causes of diplomatic contention . 
over the neutral trade, although this was well known to be 
supporting the enemy's army. 

When Nelson left the fleet, he had, besides his special 
orders for his own mission, a circular letter from the admiral 



158 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

to all vessels under his command, framed upon instructions 
received from England a month before, directing special care 
"not to give any just cause of offence to the foreign powers in 
amity with his Majesty, and whenever any ships or vessels 
belonging to the subjects of those powers shall be detained, or 
brought by you into port, you are to transmit to the Secretary 
of the Admiralty a complete specification of their cargoes, and 
not to institute any legal process against such ships or vessels 
until their lordships' -further pleasure shall be known." 

To the naval ofiicers on the spot this order was calculated 
to increase vastly the perplexities, which necessarily arose 
from the occupation of the Genoese coast by French troops. 
But, besides questions of trade, the weaker States, Genoa and 
Tuscany, — the latter of which had recently made peace with 
France, — were driven to manifold shifts and compromises, in 
order to maintain in their ports such semblance of impartial 
neutrality as would save them from reprisals by either party. 
These measures, while insuring to some extent the end in 
view, gave rise also to a good deal of friction and recrimination 
between the neutral and the belligerents. The vessels of the 
latter were admitted, under certain limitations as to number, into 
the neutral port, where they lay nearly side by side, jealously 
watching each other, and taking note of every swerving, real 
or presumed, from an exact and even balance. Each sailed 
from the neutral port to carry on war, but it is obvious that 
the shelter of such a port was far more useful to the belligerent 
who did not control the water, who moved upon it only by 
evasion and stealth, and who was therefore tempted, in order 
to improve such advantages, to stretch to the verge of abuse 
the privileges permitted to him by the neutral. " The Genoese 
allow the French," wrote Nelson, *• to have some small vessels 
in the port of Genoa, that I have seen towed out of the port, 
and board vessels coming in, and afterwards return into the 
mole ; the conduct of the English is very different." He else- 
where allows, however, that, " in the opinion of the Genoese, 
my squadron is constantly offending ; so that it almost appeai-s 
a trial between us, who shall first be tired, they of complain- 
ing, or me of answering them." 

After the first successes of the Austrians and Sardinians, in 
the previous June, the French commander-in-chief, Kellerman, 



OPERATIONS ON THE RIVIERA, 1795 159 

feeling his inferiority to be such as compelled him to a de- 
fensive attitude, had carefully selected the most advanced line 
that he thought could be held. His right rested upon the sea, 
near the village of Borghetto, some fifty or sixty miles east of 
Nice, extending thence to and across the mountains, to Ormea. 
The Austrian front was parallel, in a general sense, to that of 
the enemy, and a couple of leagues to the eastward ; thus 
securing for the British Vado Bay, considered the best anchor- 
age between Genoa and Nice. In rear of Vado, to the east- 
Avard, and on the coast road, lay the fortress of Savona, 
esteemed by Bonaparte of the first importance to an army 
operating in the Biviera and dependent upon the control of 
the road. The town was occupied by the Austrians, but they 
were excluded from the citadel by Genoese troops, — a con- 
dition of weakness in case of sudden retreat. It ought, said 
Bonaparte, to be the object of all the enemy's efforts. In 
these positions, both armies depended for supplies partly upon 
the sea, partly upon the land road along the Kiviera. Across 
the mountains, in Piedmont, lay the Sardinian forces, extend- 
ing perpendicularly to the main front of the French operations, 
and, so far as position went, threatening their communications 
by the narrow land road. The character of the ground inter- 
vening between the French and Austrians rendered an attack 
upon either line, once fairly established, very difficult ; and it 
was doubtless a fault in the Austrian commander, De Vins, 
while superior in force, to allow the enemy to strengthen him- 
self in a position which at the first had its weak points ; the 
more so as the plainly approaching peace between Spain and 
France foretold that the Army of Italy would soon be rein- 
forced. Having, however, made this jnistake, the Austrian 
settled himself in his works, shrugged the responsibility off 
his own shoulders, and awaited that either the Sardinians by 
land, or the British by sea, should, by choking the communi- 
cations of the French, compel them to abandon their lines. 

Such was the situation when Nelson, on the 21st of July, 
had his first interview with De Vins ; on the 22d peace be- 
tween Spain and France was formally concluded. Within 
a month, Bonaparte, who then occupied a prominent position 
in Paris, as military adviser to the Government, was writing : 
" Peace with Spain makes offensive war in Piedmont certain j 



160 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

my plan is being discussed ; Vado will soon be taken ; " and a 
few days later, on the 25tli of August, " Troops from Spain 
are marching to Italy." It was incumbent upon the French 
to repossess Vado, for, by affording safe anchorage to small 
hostile cruisers, it effectually stopped the trade with Genoa. 
De Vins had there equipped several privateers, under the 
Austrian flag. Of it Bonaparte said : " By intercepting the 
coasters from Italy, it has svispended our commerce, stopped 
the arrival of provisions, and obliged us to supply Toulon 
from the interior of the Eepublic. It is recognized that our 
commerce and subsistence require that communication wdth 
Genoa be promptly opened." Having in view Bonaparte's 
remarkable campaign of the following year, and the fact that 
Vado was now held in force by the Austrians, the importance 
of British co-operation by the fleet, at this critical moment, 
becomes strikingly apparent. The future thus throws back a 
ray of illuminating significance upon the otherwise paltry and 
obscure campaign of 1795, dragging out into broad daylight 
the full meaning of lost opportunities in the early year, and 
of Nelson's strenuous efforts in his detached command. 

Immediately upon his arrival in Genoa, on July 17, the 
effect of the neutral trade, if unchecked, upon the operations 
of both armies, was brought before him by the British min- 
ister. Unless the supplies thus received by the French could 
be stopped, the Austrian general would not only be unable to 
advance, but feared he could not hold his present position. 
If, on the other hand, the forage and grain thus brought to 
them could be intercepted, they would be forced to retreat, 
and there were hopes that the Austrians might reach Nice 
before winter, thus covering the excellent and advanced 
harbor of Villef ranche as an anchorage for their British allies. 
Nelson readily understood the situation, and admitted the 
necessity of the service demanded of his squadron, which was 
simply a blow at the enemy's communications ; but he j)ointed 
out to the minister that the circular instructions, before 
quoted, tied his hands. Not only would the ordinary diffi- 
culties of proving the ownership and destination of a cargo 
give rise to the usual vexatious disputes, and irritate neutrals, 
contrary to the spirit of the order ; but there was a particular 
complication in this instance, arising from the occupation of 



OPERATIONS ON TPIE RIVIERA, 1795 161 

Genoese towns by French troops, and from the close proximity 
of the neutral and hostile seaboards. These embarrassments 
might be met, were it permissible to sell the cargoes, and hold 
the money value, subject to the decision of an admiralty court 
upon the propriety of the seizure ; but this the circular 
explicitly forbade, until the case was referred to England. 
If the decision there was adverse to the captors, the other 
party would look to the responsible naval officer for pecuniary 
redress, and as, during the delay, the cargo would be spoiled, 
costs could come only out of the captor's pocket. Nelson's 
exiDeriences in the West Indies, ten years before, naturally 
made him cautious about further legal annoyances. 

All this he stated with his usual lucidity ; but the ease was 
one in which his course could have been safely predicted by a 
person familiar with his character. The need for the pro- 
posed action was evident. "The Avhole of the necessity of 
stopping all the vessels is comprised in a very few words : 
that, if we will not stop supplies of corn, etc., going to France, 
the armies will return from whence they came, and the failure 
of this campaign, from which so much is expected, will be 
laid to our want of energy; for the only use of the naval 
co-operation is the keeping out a supply of provisions." He 
therefore, after a night's reflection, told the minister that if 
he would tell him, officially, that it Avas for the benefit of his 
Majesty's service that he should stop all trade between the 
neutral towns and France, and places occupied by the armies 
of France, he would give the proper directions for that pur- 
pose. It would have been possible for him, though with some 
delay, to refer the matter to Hotham, but he knew the latter's 
temperament, and distrusted it. "Our admiral has no politi- 
cal courage whatever," he wrote to Collingwood, "and is 
alarmed at the mention of any strong measure ; but, in other 
respects, he is as good a man as can possibly be." With a 
superior so little decided, it was better, by his own independ- 
ent initiative, to create a situation, which the former would 
be as backward to reverse as he would have been to change 
the previous and wholly different state of things. Like the 
American frontiersman, whose motto was, " Be sure you 're 
right, then go ahead," Nelson, when convinced, knew no hesi- 
tations; but further, he unquestionably derived keen enjoy- 

II 



162 THE LIFE OE NELSON 

ment from the sense that the thing done involved risk to 
himself, appealed to and brought into play his physical or 
moral courage, in the conscious exercise of which he delighted. 
'' I am acting, not only without the orders of my commander- 
in-chief, but in some measure contrary to them. However, I 
have not only the support of his Majesty's ministers, both at 
Turin and Genoa, but a consciousness that I am doing what is 
right and proper for the service of our King and Country. 
Political courage in an officer abroad is as highly necessary as 
military courage." "The orders I have given are strong, and 
I know not how my admiral will approve of them, for they 
are, in a great measure, contrary to those he gave me ; but the 
service requires strong and vigorous measures to bring the 
war to a conclusion." 

The case bore some resemblance to that in which he had 
disobeyed Hughes in the West Indies ; but the disregard of 
the superior's orders on the earlier occasion was more direct, 
and the necessity for it less urgent. In both he disobeyed 
first, and referred afterwards, and in both his action was 
practically sustained ; for, whatever the technical fault, the 
course taken was the one demanded by the needs of the situa- 
tion. It is possible to recognize the sound policy, the moral 
courage, and the correctness of such a step in the particular 
instance, without at all sanctioning the idea that an officer 
may be justified in violating orders, because he thinks it right. 
The justification rests not upon what he thinks, but upon the 
attendant circumstances which prove that he is right ; and, if 
he is mistaken, if the conditions have not warranted the in- 
fraction of the fundamental principle of military efficiency, — 
obedience, — he must take the full consequences of his error, 
however honest he may have been. Nor can the justification 
of disobedience fairly rest upon any happy consequences that 
follow upon it, though it is a commonplace to say that the 
result is very apt to determine the question of reward or 
blame. There is a certain confusion of thought prevalent on 
this matter, most holding the rule of obedience too absolutely, 
others tending to the disorganizing view that the integrity of 
the intention is sufficient; the practical result, and for the 
average man the better result, being to shun the grave 
responsibility of departing from the letter of the order. 



OPERATIONS ON THE RIVIERA, 1795 163 

But all this only shows more clearly the great professional 
conrage and professional sagacity of Nelson, that he so often 
assumed such a responsibility, and so generally — with, per- 
haps, but a single exception — was demonstrably correct in 
his action. 

Hotham in this case very heartily approved what had been 
done, and issued, to the fleet in general, orders similar to those 
given by Nelson; but he did not like the difficulties that sur- 
rounded the question of co-operation, and left the conduct of 
affairs on the spot wholly to his eager and enterprising sub- 
ordinate. The latter directed the seizure of all vessels laden 
with corn for France or the French armies, an order that was 
construed to apply to the Genoese towns occupied by them. 
The cargoes appear to have been sold and the money held. 
The cruisers in his command were stationed along the Riviera, 
east and west of Genoa itself. Those to the eastward, in the 
neighborhood of Spezia, where no French were, gave great 
offence to the Government of the Republic, which claimed 
that their chief city was blockaded ; but Nelson refused to 
remove them. They are not blockading Genoa, he said, but 
simply occupying the station best suited to intercept a contra- 
band trade. The various British vessels displayed the full 
activity that might have been expected from the character of 
their leader, and the pressure was speedily felt by the enemy, 
and by the neutrals whose lucrative trade was summarily in- 
terrupted. The traffic in vessels of any considerable size, sea- 
going vessels, soon ceased, and Nelson entertained at first 
great hopes of decisive results from the course adopted by 
him. "We have much power here at present to do great 
things, if we know how to apply it," he wrote, after being 
ten days on the ground ; and at the end of a month, " The 
strong orders which I judged it proper to give on my first 
arrival, have had an extraordinary good effect; the French 
army is now supplied with almost daily bread from Marseilles ; 
not a single boat has passed with corn." The enemy them- 
selves admitted the stringency of their situation. But Nelson 
had yet to learn how ingenuity and enterprise could find a 
way of eluding his care. The coasting-trade soon began to 
take on a large development. The Spaniards, now at peace 
with France, supplied Marseilles, and from both that port and 



1G4 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Genoa grain was carried by small boats, that could be moved 
by oar as well as sail, could hug closely the rocky shore, and 
run readily under the batteries with which the French had 
covered the small bays of the western Riviera, whither the 
cruisers could not follow. The operations of the latter, de- 
pendent only upon their canvas, could not always be extended 
to within easy gunshot of the beach, along which the blockade- 
runners kept, usually under cover of night. 

Hence, although seriously inconvenienced, the French did 
not find their position untenable. There were two ways by 
which the pressure might be increased. A flotilla of small 
vessels, similar to the coasters themselves, but armed and 
heavily manned, might keep close in with the points which 
the latter had to round, and prevent their passage ; but the 
British had no such vessels at their disposal, and, even if 
they had, the operations would be exposed to danger from the 
weather upon a hostile, iron-bound coast, whose shelter was 
forbidden them by the enemy's guns. The Neapolitans had 
such a flotilla, and it seems probable that its co-operation was 
asked, for Nelson speaks of it as a desirable aid on the 23d of 
August ; but it did not actually join him until the 15th of 
September, w^hen the season for its acting was almost past. 
"Had I the flotilla," wrote he, "nothing should be on this 
coast. A few weeks more and they will not stay a night at 
sea to save an empire." Prior to its arrival the British at- 
tempted to harass the traffic with their ships' boats, but these 
were undecked, and of limited capacity compared to those 
against which they were to act. They were occasionally suc- 
cessful, but the results were too uncertain and hazardous to 
warrant perseverance, although Bonaparte had to admit that 
" The audacity of the English boats and the indolence of the 
Genoese, who allow their own vessels to be taken in their own 
roads, make it necessary to erect a battery for hot shot at a 
proper point, which you will exact shall be done by the gov- 
ernor of San Remo." 

Nelson's active mind, clinging with its usual accurate in- 
sight to the decisive factor in the situation, now fixed upon 
the idea of seizing a suitable point upon the Riviera to the 
westward of the French, upon their line of communication 
with Nice. A body of troops there, strong enough to hold 



OPERATIONS ON THE RIVIERA, 1795 1G5 

the position, would stop tlie passage of supplies by land, and, 
if they controlled an anchorage, a condition indispensable to 
their support, — and to their retreat, if necessary to retire, — 
the small vessels based upon that could better interrupt the 
coasting business. In pursuance of this plan, he in the first 
week of September made a cruise with the " Agamemnon " as 
far to the westward as Nice, reconnoitring carefully all re- 
cesses of the shore line that seemed available for the purpose. 
Upon his return, he wrote to De Vins what he had done, and 
described San Eemo as the only available spot. He mentioned 
its disadvantages as well as its advantages, but undertook 
positively to land there five thousand men with field-guns, 
and provisions for a few days, to maintain their supplies by 
sea, and to cover their embarkation in case retreat became 
imperative. In short, he guaranteed to land such a force 
safely, and to be responsible for its communications; for both 
which he practically pledged his professional reputation. He 
added, what was indisputable, that the French army must 
abandon its present lines for want of supplies, if San Remo 
were held for some time. 

De Vins replied on the 14th of September, expressing his 
interest in the matter thus broached to him, but carefully 
evading the issue. He addressed his remarks to the com- 
parative merits of Vado and San Remo as anchorages, upon 
which Nelson had touched barely, and only incidentally, for 
the gist of his proposal was simply to intercept the enemy's 
communications ; if this were feasible, all other considerations 
were subsidiary and matters of detail. San Remo was' ad- 
mitted to be the poorer anchorage, unfit for the fleet, but open 
to small vessels, which could carry the supplies to the Aus- 
trian detachment, and stop those of the enemy. The move 
proposed was intended to effect by sea, substantially, the ob- 
ject which De Vins himself had told Nelson, three wrecks 
before, that he was trying to secure through the co-operation 
of the Sardinian land forces. " He has been long expecting," 
wrote Nelson on the 13th of August, "an attack by General 
Colli with the Piedmontese, near Ormea, directly back from 
Vintimiglia. This is the great point to be carried, as the 
Piedmontese army would then get Vintimiglia, and , . . prob- 
ably, unless the enemy are very active, their retreat to Nice 



166 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

will be cut off. De Vins says he has flattered and abused the 
Piedmontese and Keapolitans, but nothing will induce them 
to act." Colli was a good soldier, but his relations with the 
Austrian were very strained, and coalitions rarely act cor- 
dially. This plan, however, becoming known to the French, 
was commended by Bonaparte as well conceived. " We have 
examined attentively the project attributed to the enemy 
in the enclosed note. We have found it conformable to his 
real interests, and to the present distribution of his troops. 
The heights of Briga are in truth the key to the Department 
of the Maritime Alps, since from there the high-road may be 
intercepted and we be obliged to evacuate Tende. We charge 
you to pay serious attention to this matter." ^ Disappointed 
in Sardinian support, Nelson and De Vins had then discussed 
a plan, of which the former's present proposal was the ver}'- 
clear and practical outcome. Some risk must be run, he said ; 
but De Vins, when it came to the point, saw the dangers too 
plainly. He did not distinctly refuse, but talked only, and 
instead of San Remo proposed to land west of Nice, between 
it and the Var. Nothing, however, was done, or even at- 
tempted, and Hotham refused co-operation. 

Having regard to the decisive effect exercised upon any 
strategic position, or movement, by a valid threat against the 
communications, — considering, for example, the vital influ- 
ence which the French occupation of Genoa in 1800 had upon 
the campaign which terminated at Marengo, — it is impossible 
to speak otherwise than with respect of this proposal of 
Nelson's. Nevertheless, serious reflection can scarcely fail 
to affirm that it was not really practicable. There is an 
immeasurable difference between the holding of a strongly 
fortified city with an army corps, and the mere seizure of a 
comparatively open position by a detachment, which, if it 
means to remain, must have time to fortify itself, in order to 
withstand the overwhelming numbers that the enemy must at 
once throw upon it. The time element, too, is of the utmost 
importance. It is one thing to grasp a strong position with a 
few men, expecting to hold it for some hours, to delay an 
advance or a retreat until other forces can come into play, 

1 Correspondance de Napoleon, August 30, 1795. The letter was from 
Bonaparte's hand, though signed by the Committee of Public Safety. 



OPERATIONS ON THE RRaERA, 1795 167 

and quite another to attempt to remain permanently and un- 
supported in such a situation. In the case before us, De Vins 
would have landed five thousand men in a comparatively ex- 
posed position; for, although the town of San Eemo was in 
possession of the French, who might be driven out for the 
moment, the only strong point, the citadel, was occupied — as 
in the case of Savona, to the eastward of the Austrians — by 
the Genoese, Avho would doubtless have refused admission. 
Before his main body would still lie the works which the 
French had been diligently strengthening for more than two 
months, and which, with his whole force in hand, he did not 
care to assail. The enemy, knowing him thus weakened, 
could well afford to spare a number greatly superior to the 
detachment he had adventured, certain that, while they were 
dislodging it, he could make no serious impression upon their 
lines. As for retreat and embarkation under cover of the guns 
of a squadron, when pressed by an enemy, the operation is 
too critical to be hazarded for less than the greatest ends, and 
with at least a fair possibility of success for the undertaking 
whose failure Avould entail it. 

Nelson's confidence in himself and in his profession, and 
his accurate instinct that war cannot be made without running 
risks, combined with his lack of experience in the difiiculties 
of land operations to mislead his judgment in the particular 
instance. In a converse sense, there may be applied to him 
the remark of the French naval critic, that Napoleon lacked 
''le sentiment exact des difficultes de la marine." It was not 
only to British seamen, and to the assured control of the sea, 
that Nelson thought such an attempt offered reasonable 
prospect of success. He feared a like thing might be effected 
by the French, — by evasion. " If the enemy's squadron 
comes on this coast, and lands from three to four thousand 
men between Genoa and Savona, I am confident that either 
the whole Austrian array will be defeated, or must inevitably 
retreat into Piedmont, and abandon their artillery and stores." 
These words, the substance of which he frequently repeats, 
though written immediately before the disastrous Battle of 
Loano, do not apply to the purpose entertained by the French 
on that occasion, of endeavoring, by a small detachment at 
Voltri, to check the Austrian retreat till their pursuers came 



168 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

up. He is contemplating a much more considerable and sus- 
tained effort, strategic in character, and identical in aim with 
his own proposal to De Vins about San Remo. It is clear that 
Nelson, in his day, did not attach absolute deterrent effect to 
a fleet in being, even to such an one as the British then had 
in the Mediterranean. Important a factor as it was, it might 
conceivably be disregarded, by a leader who recognized that 
the end in view justified the risk. 

There was yet another motive actuating Nelson in his 
present proposals. Justly impatient of the delays and color- 
less policy of both De Vins and the British leaders, he fore- 
saw that the latter would be made to take the blame, if the 
camj)aign i:)roved abortive or disastrous. The Austrians had 
at least something to show. They had advanced, and they 
had seized Vado Bay, cutting off the intercourse between 
Genoa and France, which Bonaparte deemed so important, 
and at the same time securing an anchorage for the fleet. 
The latter had done nothing, although its co-operation had 
been promised ; except Nelson's little squadron, in which was 
but one small ship-of-the-line out of the twenty-three under 
Hotham's command, it had not been seen.^ Nelson was de- 
termined, as far as in him lay, to remove all grounds for 
reproach. He urged the admiral to send him more ships, and 
abounded in willingness towards De Vins. For the latter he 
had at first felt the esteem and confidence which he almost 
invariably showed, even to the point of weakness, towards 
those associated with him ; but he now became distrustful, 
and devoted himself to stopping every loophole of excuse 
which might afterwards be converted into reproaches to the 
navy. 

The cause for the inadequacy of the force left under his 
command, of which he often complains, is not apparent. The 
question was put direct to the admiral whether he would 
co-operate with the fleet in the proposed descent of the 
Austrians. He said that he could not, owing to the nature 
of his instructions -from home; but that he would answer for 

1 The fleet passed once, August 14, in sight of Vado Bay. Nelson went on 
board, and tried to induce Hotham to go in and meet De Vins. He refused, 
saying he must go to Leghorn, but would return, and water the fleet in Vado; 
but he never came. 






OPEKATIONS ON THE RIVIERA, 1795 169 

it that the French navy should not interfere. Six weeks later 
the question was repeated ; but the admiral replied that, after 
a consultation with the flag-officers under his command, he 
refused co-operation in what he considered a wild scheme. In 
this opinion he was probably right, though Nelson possibly 
was reminded of Dundas's objections to besieging Bastia. 
Nelson then went in person to Leghorn, and saw Hotham. 
He asked to be given two seventy-fours and the transports, to 
make the attempt himself. Hotham again refused a single 
ship ; but not only so, reduced Nelson's squadron, and ordered 
him, in addition to liis present duties, to reconnoitre Toulon 
continually, "whilst he," said Nelson, scornfully, "lies quiet 
in Leghorn Roads." It would almost seem as if the admiral 
thought tliat the time had come for a little judicious snubbing, 
and repression of ardor in the uncomfortable subordinate, 
whose restless energy conflicted so much, with his repose of 
mind. The fleet spent its time chiefly in San "Fiorenzo Bay or 
in Leghorn, making occasional cruises off Toulon to observe 
the French navy in that port. The latter was undoubtedly 
its principal care ; but, being distinctly inferior to the British, 
it is impossible to say why Nelson should not have been rein- 
forced. If it was due to the wish to continue so largely 
superior in numbers, it certainly illustrates with singular 
appositeness the deterrent effect of an inferior " fleet in 
being," and that that effect lies ' less in the nature of things 
than in the character of the officer upon whom it is produced. 
Moreover, the employment of adequate force upon the Riviera, in 
active aggressive work under Nelson during the summer, when 
it was practicable to do so, would have compelled the French 
fleet to come out and fight, or the French army to fall back. 

On the 1st of November Hotham struck his flag in Genoa, 
and departed, bequeathing to his successors a military estate 
encumbered by the old mortgage of the French fleet, still in 
being, which he might have cleared off, and by a new one in 
the numerous and powerful batteries of the Riviera, built and 
controlled by troops whose presence to erect them might have 
been prevented by a timely action on his part. The harm, being 
done, was thenceforth irreparable. As time passed, the situa- 
tion became more and more favorable to the French. The 
reinforcements from Spain arrived, and gunboats and flatboats, 



170 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

fitted out at Toulon, began to come upon the scene. Their 
appearance revived in Nelson the apprehension, so consonant 
to his military ideas at this time, of an attempt upon the coast 
road in rear of the Austrians. He even feared for Genoa itself, 
and for the "Agamemnon," while she lay there, as the result 
of such a dash. The recurrence of this jDrepossession is illus- 
trative of his view of possibilities. The true and primary 
object of the French was to consolidate their communications; 
nor, with Bonaparte in the influential position he then occu- 
pied, was any such ex-centric movement likely. For useful 
purposes, Genoa was already at his disposal ; the French sub- 
sistence department was, by his plans, to collect there rations 
of corn for sixty thousand men for three months, preparatory 
to an advance. For the same object the coasting activity 
redoubled along the Eiviera, from Toulon to the French front. 
By ISTovember 1st a hundred sail — transports and small ships 
of war — had assembled fifteen miles behind Borghetto, in 
Alassio Bay, whither Nelson had chased them. Depots and 
supplies were collecting there for the prospective movement. 
Nelson offered to enter the bay with three ships-of-the-line, speci- 
fied by name, and to destroy them ; but this ■was declined by 
Sir Hyde Parker, who had temporarily succeeded Hotham in 
command, and who at a later day, in the Baltic, w^as to check 
some of Nelson's finest inspirations. "I pretend not to say," 
wrote the latter, a month afterwards, when the Austrians had 
been driven from their lines, " that the Austrians would not 
have been beat had not the gunboats harassed them, for, on 
my conscience, I believe they w^ould ; but I believe the French 
would not have attacked had we destroyed all the vessels of - ■ 
war, transports, etc." As to the practicability of destroying 11 
them, Nelson's judgment can safely be accepted, subject only 
to the chances which are inseparable from war. 

So far from reinforcing the squadron on the Riviera, Sir 
Hyde Parker first reduced it, and then took away the frigates 
at this critical moment, when the indications of the French 
moving were becoming apparent in an increase of boldness. 
Their gunboats, no longer confining themselves to the convoy 
of coasters, crept forward at times to molest the Austrians, 
where they rested on the sea. Nelson had no similar force to 
oppose to them, except the Neapolitans, whom he ordered to 



OPERATIONS ON THE RIVIERA, 1795 171 

act, but with what result is not clear. At the same time the 
l^'rench partisans in Genoa became very threatening. On the 
10th of November a party of three hundred, drawn from 
the ships in the port, landed at Voltri, about nine miles from 
Genoa, seized a magazine of corn, and an Austrian commissary 
with £10,000 in his charge. The place was quickly retaken, 
but the effrontery of the attempt from a neutral port showed 
the insecurity of the conditions. At the same time a rumor 
spread that a force of between one and two thousand men, 
partly carried from Genoa in the French ships of war then 
lying there, partly stealing along shore in coasters from 
Borghetto, was to seize a post near Voltri, and hold it. Nelson 
was informed that men were absolutely being recruited on the 
Exchange of Genoa for this expedition. When the attack 
at Voltri was made, the " Agamemnon " was lying in Vado 
Bay. Leaving a frigate there, Nelson started immediately for 
Genoa, in order, by the presence of a superior naval force and 
the fear of retaliation, both to compel the Republic to have its 
neutrality observed, and to check similar undertakings in the 
future. The "Agamemnon" was laid across the harbor's 
mouth, and no French vessel was allowed to sail. Urgent 
representations were made to Nelson by the Austrian minister 
and commander-in-chief, that if, the ship were withdrawn, the 
consequences to the army would be most serious. Contrary, 
therefore, to his personal inclinations, which were always to 
be at the front, he remained, although the demonstrations of 
the gunboats continued, and it was evident that they would at 
least annoy the Austrian flank in case of an assault. The 
latter evil, however, was much less disquieting than a descent 
on the army's line of retreat, at the same moment that it was 
assailed in front in force ; and it was evident that the Austrian 
general was feeling an uneasiness, the full extent of which he 
did not betray. De Vins had by this timQ quitted his com- 
mand, ill, and had been succeeded by General Wallis. 

In this condition of affairs, a general attack upon the 
Austrian positions was made by the French on the morning 
of November 21. As had been feared, the gunboats took 
part, in the absence of any British ships, — the frigate having 
been removed. Nelson asserts, without his knowledge ; but 
the matter was of very secondary importance, for the weight 



172 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of the enemy's attack fell upon the positions in the mountains, 
the centre and right, which were routed and driven back. 
Swinging round to their own right, towards the sea, the vic- 
torious French pushed after the disordered enemy, seeking to 
intercept their retreat by the coast. Had there then been 
established, in a well-chosen point of that narrow road, a 
resolute body of men, even though small, they might well 
have delayed the fliers until the main body of the pursuers 
came up ; but the presence of the " Agamemnon " controlled 
the departure of the intended expedition from Genoa, upon 
which alone, as an organized effort, the projected obstruction 
depended. Thus she was the efficient cause, as Nelson 
claimed, that many thousands of Austrian s escaped capture. 
As it was, they lost in this affair, known as the Battle of 
Loano, seven thousand men, killed, wounded, or prisoners. 
The entire Riviera was abandoned, and they retreated across 
the Apennines into Piedmont. 

When things go wrong, there is always a disposition on the 
part of each one concerned to shift the blame. The Austrians 
had complained before the action, and still more afterwards, 
of the failure of the fleet to aid them. Nelson thought their 
complaint well founded. " They say, and true, they were 
brought on the coast at the express desire of the English, to 
co-operate with the fleet, which fleet nor admiral they never 
saw." On his own part he said : " Our admirals will have, I 
believe, much to answer for in not giving me that force which 
I so repeatedly called for, and for at last leaving me with 
Agamemnon alone. Admiral Hotham kept my squadron too 
small for its duty ; and the moment Sir Hyde took the com- 
mand of the fleet he reduced it to nothing, — only one frigate 
and a brig ; whereas I demanded two seventy- four-gun ships and 
eight or ten frigates and sloops to insure safety to the army." 

It is unnecessary to inquire into the motives of the two 
admirals for the distribution of their force. Unquestionably, 
the flrst thing for them to do was to destroy or neutralize the 
French fleet ; and next to destro}^, or at least impede, the 
communications of the French army. That it was possible to 
do this almost wholly may be rested upon the authority of 
Nelson, whose matured opinion, given five years later, has 
already been quoted. Two opportunities to cripple the Toulon 



OPERATIONS ON THE KIVIERA, 1705 173 

fleet were lost ; but even so, after the junction of Man, in 
June, the superiority over it was so great that much might 
have been spared to the Riviera squadron. The coast was 
not at this time so extensively fortified that coasting could 
not, in Nelson's active hands, have been made a very insuffi- 
cient means of supply. As an illustration of the operations 
then possible, on the 26th of August, six weeks after the 
naval battle of July 13, the "Agamemnon," with her little 
squadron, anchored in the Bay of Alassio, three cables' length 
from the fort in the centre of the town, and with her boats 
took possession of all the French vessels in the harbor. Two 
months later, so much had the place been strengthened, he 
could not vouch for success with less than three ships-of-the- 
line; but had the pressure been consistently applied during 
those months, the French position would long before have 
become untenable. That a shore line, by great and systematic 
effort, could be rendered secure throughout for coasters, was 
proved by Napoleon's measures to cover the concentration of 
the Boulogne flotilla in 1803-5 ; but such conditions did not 
obtain between Nice and Vado in 1795. 

Despite the abortive and ignominious ending to the cam- 
paign. Nelson's own reputation issued from it not only un- 
scathed, but heightened ; and this is saying much, for, 
although due public recognition of his services had scarcely 
been extended, — except in conferring the Marines upon him, 
— he had already, before its beginning, made upon all who 
were brought into contact with him that impression of un- 
usual efficiency, zeal, and sound judgment, to which subse- 
quent employment and opjjortunity apply a sure and searching 
test. As he entered upon his detached duties, the Viceroy of 
Corsica, who had necessarily seen and known much of his past 
conduct, wrote to him thus : " Give me leave, my dear Sir, to 
congratulate you on the Agamemnon's supporting iiniformly, 
on all occasions, the same reputation which has always dis- 
tinguished that ship since I have been in the Mediterranean. 
It gives me great pleasure also to see you employed in your 
present important service, which requires zeal, activity, and 
a spirit of accommodation and co-operation, qualities which 
will not be wanting in the Commodore of your squadron. I 
consider the business you are about, I mean the expulsion of 



174 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the enemy from the Genoese and Piediuontese territories, as 
the most important feature in the southern campaign," These 
anticipations of worthy service and exceptional merit were 
confirmed, after all the misfortunes and disappointments of 
the campaign, by the singularly comi^etent judgment of the 
new commander-in-chief, Sir John Jervis. The latter at his 
first interview with Nelson, nearly two months after his 
arrival on the station, so that time enough had elapsed to 
mature his opinion, asked him to remain under his command, 
as a junior admiral, when he received his promotion. Having 
regard to Jervis's own high endowments, it was not then in 
the power of the British Navy to pay an ofiicer of Nelson's 
rank a higher compliment. 

During these months of service upon the Eiviera, there 
occurred an incident, which, from the reflection made upon 
Nelson's integrity, drew from him a letter, struck off at such 
white heat, and so trans j)arently characteristic of his tempera- 
ment, aspirations, and habit of thought, as to merit quotation. 
A report had been spread that the commanders of the British 
ships of war connived at the entry of supply- vessels into the 
ports held by the French, and a statement to that effect was 
forwarded to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The 
latter sent the paper, for investigation, to the Minister to 
Genoa, who mentioned its tenor to Nelson. The latter, justly 
stigmatizing the conduct imputed to him and his officers as 
'' scandalous and infamous," requested a copy of the accusa- 
tion, in order that' by his refutation he might convince the 
King, that he was " an officer who had ever pursued the road 
of honour, very different from that to wealth." Having re- 
ceived the copy, he wrote to the Secretary as follows : — 

Agamemnon, Genoa Road, 23d November, 1795. 

My Lord, — Having received, from Mr. Drake, a copy of yom* 
Lordship's letter to him of October, enclosing a paper highly reflect- 
ing on the honour of myself and other of His Majesty's Officers era- 
ployed on this Coast under my Orders, it well becomes me, as far 
as in my power lies, to wipe away this ignominious stain on our 
characters. I do, therefore, in behalf of myself, and much injm'ed 
Brethren, demand, that the person, whoever he may be, that wrote, 
or gave that j^aper to your Lordship, do fully, and expressly bring 
home his charge; which, as he states tlaat this agreement is made by 



OPERATIONS ON THE RIVIERA, 1795 175 

numbers of people on both sides, there can be no difficulty in doing. 
We dare him, my Lord, to the proof. If he cannot, I do most 
humbly implore, that His Majesty will be most graciously pleased to 
direct his Attorney-General to prosecute this infamous libeller in His 
Courts of Law ; and I likewise feel, that, without impropriety, I may 
on behalf of my brother Officers, demand the support of His Majesty's 
Ministers : for as, if true, no punishment can be too great for the 
traitors; so, if false, none can be too heavy for the villain, who has 
dared to allow his pen to write such a paper. Perhaps I ought to 
stop my letter here ; but I feel too much to rest easy for a moment, 
when the honour of the Navy, and oar Country, is struck at through 
us ; for if nine [ten] Captains, whom chance has thrown together, can 
instantly join in such a traitorous measm'e, it is fair to conclude we 
are all bad. 

As this traitorous agreement could not be carried on but by concert 
of all the Captains, if they were on the Stations allotted them, and as 
they could only be drawn from those Stations by orders from me, I 
do most fully acquit all my brother Captains from such a combina- 
tion, and have to request, that I may be considered as the only re. 
sponsible person for what is done under my command, if I approve 
of the conduct of those under my orders, which in this most public 
manner I beg leave to do: for Officers more alert, and more anxious 
for the good, and honour, of their King and Country, can scarcely 
ever fall to the lot of any Commanding Officer : their Names I place 
at the bottom of this letter. 

For myself, from my earliest youth I have been in the Naval 
Service ; and in two Wars, have been in more than one hundred and 
forty Skirmishes and Battles, at Sea and on shore ; have lost an eye, 
and otherwise blood, in fighting the Enemies of my King and Coun- 
try; and, God knows, instead of riches, my little fortune has been 
diminished in the Service : but I shall not trouble your Lordship 
further at present, than just to say — that at the close of this Cam- 
paign, where I have had the pleasure to receive the approbation of 
the Generals of the Allied Powers ; of his Excellency Mr. Drake, who 
has always been on the spot ; of Mr. Trevor, who has been at a dis- 
tance ; when I expected and hoped, from the representation of His 
Majesty's Ministers, that His INIajesty would have most graciously 
condescended to have favourably noticed my earnest desire to serve 
Him, and when, instead of all my fancied approbation, to receive an 
accusation of a most traitorous nature — it has almost been too much 
for me to bear. Conscious innocence, I hope, will support me. 
I have the honour to be. 
My Lord, 
Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 

Horatio Nplson- 



176 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Except this vexatious but passing cloud, his service upon 
the Eiviera, despite the procrastinations and final failure of 
his associates in the campaign, was pleasant both personally 
and officially. He earned the warm esteem of all with whom 
he acted, notably the British ministers at Turin and Genoa; 
and though necessarily in constant collision with the Genoese 
authorities upon international questions, lie upheld the inter- 
ests and policy of his own government, without entailing 
upon it serious cause of future reclamations and disputes. i 
Hotham's very indifference and lethargy, while crippling his 
enterprise, increased his independence. " I cannot get Hotham 
on the coast," he said, " for he hates this co-operation ; " but 
he owns to the fear that the admiral, if he came, might over- 
rule his projects. The necessity for exertion delighted him. 
" My command here is so far pleasant," he wrote to his friend 
Collingwood, "as it relieves me from the inactivity of our 
fleet, which is great indeed, as you will soon see." "At 
present," be tells his wife, "I do not write less than from 
ten to twenty letters every day; which, with the Austrian 
general, and aide-de-camps, and my own little squadron, fully 
employ my time: this I like; active service or none." As 
usual, when given room for the exercise of his powers, he 
was, for him, well. He had a severe attack of illness very 
soon after assuming the duty — "a complaint in the breast " 
— the precursor perhaps of the similar trouble from which he 
suffered so much in later years ; but it wore off after an acute 
attack of a fortnight, and he wrote later that, except being at 
home, he knew no country so pleasant to serve in, nor where 
his health was so good. This well-grounded preference for 

1 A year later, when all his transactions with Genoa as an independent re- 
public were concluded, Nelson received from the British Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, through the Admiralty, the following strong and comprehensive 
endorsement of his political conduct: — 

"I esteem it an act of justice due to that officer, to inform your lordships 
that His Majesty has been graciously pleased entirely to approve of the con- 
duct of Commodore Nelson in all his transactions with the Republic of Genoa. 
I have the honour to be, &c., &c. Grenville." 

The First Lord of the Admiralty about the same time expressed "the great 
satisfaction derived here from the very spirited, and at the same time dignified 
and temperate manner, in which your conduct has been marked both at Leg- 
horn and Genoa." 



OPERATIONS ON THE EIVIERA, 1795 177 

the Mediterranean, as best suited to his naturally frail con- 
stitution, remained with him to the end. 

Besides his official correspondence, he wrote freely and 
fully to those at liome, unburdening to them the thoughts, 
cares, and disappointments of his career, as well as the com- 
mendations he received, so dear to himself as well as to them. 
Mrs. Nelson and his father lived together, and to her most 
of his home letters were addressed. " I have been very neg- 
ligent," he admits to hei-, •' in writing to my father, but I 
rest assured he knows I would have done it long ago, had 
you not been under the same roof. . . . Pray draw on me," 
he continues, " for £200, my father and myself can settle our 
accounts when we meet ; at present, I believe I am the richer 
man, therefore I desire you will give my dear father that 
money." One wonders whether, in the slightly peremptory 
tone of the last sentence, is to be seen a trace of the feeling 
she is said, by one biographer, to have shown, that he was too 
liberal to his relatives ; an indication of that lack of sym- 
pathy, which, manifested towards other traits of his, no less 
marked than openhandedness, struck a jarring note within 
him, and possibly paved the way to an indiiference which 
ended so unfortunately for both. An absent husband, how- 
ever, very possibly failed to realize what his extreme gener- 
osity might mean, to one who had to meet household expenses 
with narrow means. 

The political surmises with which his correspondence at 
this period abounds were often crude, though not infrequently 
also characterized by the native sagacity of his intellect, 
as yet undisciplined, and to some extent deficient in data 
for accurate forecasts. The erroneous military conception 
which colored much of his thought, the propositions for 
ex-centric movements in an enemy's rear, by bodies com- 
paratively small, out of supporting distance from the rest of 
the army, and resting upon no impregnable base, contributed 
greatly to the faulty anticipations entertained and expressed 
by him from time to time. When applied to operations 
directed by the consummate and highly trained genius of 
Bonaparte, speculations so swayed naturally flew wide of the 
mark. His sanguine disposition to think the best of all 
persons and all things — except Frenchmen — made him also 

12 



178 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

a ready prey to the flattering rumors of which war is ever 
fertile. These immaturities will be found to disappear, as 
his sphere widens and his responsibilities increase. 

After the close of the campaign, Nelson made a short 
cruise from Genoa to the westward, seeing the French on 
November 29 in full possession of Vado Bay. He then went 
to Leghorn, where he arrived on the 6th of December and 
remained till the middle of January, repairing, to make the 
"Agamemnon" ''as tit for sea as a rotten ship can be." The 
longing for rest and for home, after nearly three years' ab- 
sence, was again strong upon liim in this moment of relaxa- 
tion. " I fear our new admiral is willing to keep me with 
him," he wrote to his brother. " He has wrote me, I am 
sorry to say, a most flattering letter, and I hear I am to be 
offered St. George or Zealous [much larger ships], but, in my 
present mind, I shall take neither. My wish is to see Eng- 
land once more, and I want a few weeks' rest." But here 
again, having regard to that fame which was to him most 
dear, he was mistaken, as he now owned he had been in the 
wish, a year before, to accorapau}'- Lord Hood on his return. 
In Sir John Jervis he was to meet, not only one of the most 
accomplished and resolute officers of the British ISTavy, closely 
akin to himself in enterprise and fearlessness, though without 
his exceptional genius, but also a man capable of appreciating 
perfectly the extraordinary powers of his subordinate, and of 
disregarding every obstacle and all clamor, in the determina- 
tion to utilize his qualities to the full, for the good of the 
nation. 



II 



CHAPTER VII. 

Nelson's Sekvices in the Mediteruanean duuing the Year 1796.— 
Bunaparte's Italian Campaign. — The British abandon Corsica, 
AND THE Fleet leaves the Mediterranean. 

January-Deckmbek, 1796. Age, 38. 

WHILE the " Agamemnon " was refitting in Leghorn, the 
sensitive mind of her captain, no longer preoccupied 
with the cares of campaigning and negotiations, dwelt with 
restless anxiety upon the refiections to which the British 
Navy was liable, for its alleged failure to support the Aus- 
trians throughout the operations, and especially at the critical 
moment of the Battle of Loano, when the left flank of their 
army was harassed with impunity by the French gunboats. 
Nelson felt rightly that, with the British superiority at sea, 
this should have been impossible ; and he feared that his own 
name might be unpleasantly involved, from the fact that the 
''Agamemnon" had remained throughout at Genoa, instead 
of being where the fighting was. He was by nature, and at 
all times, over-forward to self-vindication, — an infirmity 
springing from the innate nobility of his temperament, which 
was impatient of the faintest suspicion of backwardness or 
negligence, and at the same time resolved that for any short- 
coming or blunder, occurring by his order or sanction, no other 
than himself should bear blame, directly or indirectly. 

After the first unsuccessful pursuit of Bonaparte's expe- 
dition to Egypt, in 1798, in the keenness of his emotions over 
a failure that might by some be charged to a precipitate error 
of judgment, he drew up for Lotd St. Vincent a clear and able 
statement of all the reasons which had determined his action, 
arraigning himself, as it were, at the bar of his Lordship's 
opinion and that of the nation, and assuming entire responsi- 
bility for the apparent mistake, while at the same time 
justifying the step by a review of the various considerations 



180 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which at the time had occasioned it. His judicious frieud 
and subordinate, Captain Ball, whom he consulted, strongly 
advised him not to send the paper, ''I was particularly 
struck," he wrote, " with the clear and accurate style, as well 
as with the candour of the statement in your letter, but I 
should recommend a friend never to begin a defence of his 
conduct before he is accused of error." Nevertheless, in Feb- 
ruary, 1805, when he once more went to Alexandria in search 
of Villeneuve, this time really misled by the elaborate mys- 
tifications of Napoleon, he again brought himself before the 
Admiralty. *' I am entirely responsible to my King and 
Country for the whole of my conduct. ... I have consulted 
no man, therefore the whole blame of ignorance in forming 
my judgment must rest with me. I would allow no man to 
take from me an atom of my glory, had I fallen in with the 
French fleet, nor do I desire any man to partake any of the 
responsibility — all is mine, right or wrong." 

In 1795, being a much younger man, of less experience of 
the world, and with a reputation, already brilliant indeed, but 
still awaiting the stamp of solidity which the lapse of time 
alone can give. Nelson felt strongly, and not improperly, that 
it was necessary to be vigilant against any possible imputa- 
tions upon his action. This was the more true, because blame 
certainly did attach to the service of which he was the repre- 
sentative on the spot, and the course he had been obliged to 
follow kept him to the rear instead of at the front. There 
would have been no greater personal danger to a man on 
board the " Agamemnon " in one place than in the other ; but 
current rumor, seeking a victim, does not pause to analyze 
conditions. Not only, therefore, did he draw up for Sir John 
Jervis a succinct synopsis of occurrences subsequent to his 
taking command of the operations along the Eiviera, in which 
he combined a justification of his own conduct with the gen- 
eral information necessary for a new commander-in-chief, but 
to all his principal correspondents he carefully imparted the 
facts necessary to clear him from blame, and to show just 
what the Navy had effected, and where it had fallen short 
through inadequate force. 

To the British minister to Genoa, who was constantly at the 
Austrian headquarters, be wrote with clear emphasis, as to 



DEFENCE OF HIS OWN CONDUCT 181 

one cognizant of all the truth, and so a witness most important 
to himself. Having first asked certain certificates, essential 
to be presented in the Admiralty Courts when Genoese prizes 
came to be adjudicated, he continued characteristically : " The 
next request much more concerns my honour, than the other 
does my interest — it is to prove to the world, to my own 
admiral, or to whoever may have a right to ask the question, 
why I remained at Genoa. I have therefore to desire that you 
will have the goodness to express, in writing, what you told 
me, that the Imperial minister and yourself were assured, if I 
left the port of Genoa unguarded, not only the Imperial troops 
at St. Pierre d' Arena and Voltri would be lost, but that the 
French plan for taking post between Voltri and Savona would 
certainly succeed ; and also, that if the Austrians should be 
worsted in the advanced posts, the retreat by the Bocchetta 
would be cut off: to which you added, that if this happened, 
the loss of the Army would be laid to my leaving Genoa, and 
recommended me most strongly not to think of it. I am 
anxious, as you will believe, to have proofs in my possession, 
that I employed to the last the Agamemnon as was judged 
most beneficial to the common cause." 

A week later he wrote again, having heard that the Austrian 
commander-in-chief, General Wallis, had declared that the 
defeat was due to the failure of the British to co-operate. 
Nelson thought that they had a strong hold on Wallis, and he 
therefore enclosed a letter to him, which he asked might be 
forwarded by the minister. The experience and training of 
the latter, however, here interposed to prevent his sensitive 
uneasiness leading to a false step, and one that might involve 
him farther than he foresaw. While bearing the clearest and 
strongest witness to the facts which Nelson had asked him to 
establish, he hinted to him, tactfully and with deference, that 
it was scarcely becoming a public servant to justify his con- 
duct to a foreign official, he being accountable only to his own 
government. Nelson accepted the suggestion, and in so doing 
characterized aptly enough the temperament which then and 
at other times carried him farther than discretion warranted. 
"My feelings ever alive, perhaps, to too nice a sense of 
honour, are a little cooled." 

Along with this care for the stainless record of the past, 



182 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

there went on in liis mind a continiial reasoning upon the 
probable course of the next j'ear's operations. In his fore- 
casts it is singuh^r to notice how, starting froia the accurate 
prenuse that it is necessary for the French to get into the 
phains of Italy, — " the gold mine," — he is continually misled 
by his old prepossession in favor of landing in rear of the 
enemy a body of troops, supported neither bj^ sure communi- 
cation Avith their niaiu army, nor by a position in itself of 
great strength. The mistake, if mistake it was, illustrates 
aptly the errors into which a man of great genius for war, of 
quick insight, such as ISTelson indisputably had, can fall, from 
want of antecedent study, of familiarity Avith those leading 
principles, deduced from the experience of the past, which are 
perhaps even more serviceable in warning against error than 
in prompting to right. Everything assures him that the 
French will carry some twenty thousand men to Italy by sea. 
" If they mean to carry on the war, they must penetrate into 
Italy. I am convinced in my own mind, that I know their 
very landing-place." Tliis, it appears afterwards, he believed 
would be between Spezia and Leghorn, in the districts of Massa 
and Carrara, whence also they would doubtless turn upon 
Leghorn, though neiitral, as a valuable and fortified seaport. 
"The prevention," he continues, "requires great foresight; 
for, if once landed, our fleet is of no use." 

The importance of Vado Bay, so discreditably lost the year 
before, strikes him from this point of view, as it did also 
Bonaparte from his more closely coherent plan of operations. 
Nelson reasoned that, if Vado were possessed by the allies, the 
French, in their attempt to reach the Tuscan coast, would be 
compelled to put to sea, where they would be exposed to the 
British fleet, while such an anchorage would enable the latter, 
when necessary, to keep the coast close aboard, or would pro- 
vide a refuge to a small squadron, if threatened by the sudden 
appearance of a superior force. Bonaparte thought Vado 
important, because, on the one hand, essential to uninter- 
rupted coasting-trade with Genoa, and on the other as advanc- 
ing his water line of communications — that by land being 
impassable for heavy articles, such as siege-guns and carriages 
— to Savona, from wdiich point the mountains could be crossed 
at their lowest elevation, and by their most practicable passes. 



riRST MEETING WITH JERVIS 183 

ISTelsou's analysis of the conditions, in other respects than 
the one mentioned, was not nn worthy of his great natural 
aptitudes. There are three things to be guarded against, he 
says. One is that pet scheme of his imagination, the trans- 
port of a corps by sea to Tuscany ; the other two are an inva- 
sion of Piedmont, and the entrance into Italy by the pass of 
the Bocchetta, behind Genoa. " If three are to be attended 
to, depend upon it one will fall, and the Emperor, very pos- 
sibly, may be more attentive to the Milanese than to Pied- 
mont." Upon this divergence of interests in a coalition 
Bonaparte also explicitly counted ; and his plan, in its first 
inception, as laid before the Directory in the summer of 1795, 
looked primarily to the subjugation of Piedmont, by separat- 
ing it from the support of the Austrian Army. The bearing 
of Vado Bay upon this project is not definitely recognized by 
Nelson. He sees in the possession of it only the frustration 
of both the enemy's supposed alternatives, — invasion of Italy 
by the Bocchetta, and of Tuscany by sea. 

With these views Nelson arrived, at San Fiorenzo, on the 
19th of January, and had his first interview with Jervis. His 
reception by the latter, whom he never before had met, was 
not only cordial but flattering. He was at once offered the 
choice of two larger ships, which were declined, " but with 
that respect and sense of obligation on my part which such 
handsome conduct demanded of me." The admiral then asked 
him if he would have any objection to remain on the station, 
when promoted, as he soon must be. Nelson's longing to go 
home had worn off with his disgust, occasioned by the im- 
potent conclusions of last year's work. Then he was experi- 
encing the feeling voiced b}^ the great Frenchman, Suffren, 
some dozen years before : " It was clear that, though we had 
the means to impose the law, all would be lost. I heartily 
pray you may permit me to leave. War alone can make bear- 
able the weariness of certain things." Now his keen enjoy- 
ment of active service revived as the hour of opening hostilities 
drew near. With these dispositions, the graciousness of his re- 
ception easily turned the scale, and before long he was not only 
willing to remain, but fearful lest he should be disappointed, 
despite the application for his retention which the admiral 
hastened to make. 



184 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

" The credit I derive from all these compliments," he wrote 
to his wife, " must be satisfactory to you ; and, should I 
remain until peace, Avhich cannot be very long, you will, I 
sincerely hope, make your mind easy." But more grateful 
than open flattery, to one so interested in, and proud of, his 
military activities, was the respect paid by Jervis to his 
views and suggestions relative to the approaching operations. 
" He was so well satisfied with my opinion of what is likely 
to happen, and the means of prevention to be taken, that he 
had no reserve with me respecting his information and ideas 
of what is likely to be done ; " or, as he wrote a month later, 
" he seems at present to consider me more as an associate than 
a subordinate officer ; for I am acting without any orders. 
This may have its difficulties at a future day ; but I make 
none, knowing the uprightness of my intentions. 'You must 
have a larger ship,' continued the admiral, 'for we cannot 
spare you, either as captain or admiral.' " Such were the 
opening relations between these two distinguished officers, 
who were in the future to exert great influence upon each 
other's career. 

It is far from improbable that the ready coincidence of 
Jervis's views with those of Nelson, as to future possibilities, 
arose, partly indeed from professional bias and prepossession 
as to the potency of navies, but still more from the false 
reports, of which Bonaparte was an apt promoter, and which 
a commission of the allies in Genoa greedily swallowed and 
transmitted. The deterrent effect of their own fleet, " in 
being," seems not to have prevented either of them from 
believing that the attempt upon Tuscany by sea was seriously 
intended. True, Nelson does at times speak of the French as 
being so unreasonable that one may expect anything from 
them ; but this scheme, which probably had not even a paper 
existence in Prance, Avas accepted by him as imminent, because 
he thought it suitable. As he cogently remarked to Beaulieu, 
it is likely that your enemy will not do the thing which you 
wish him to do ; and conversely, in this case, what to him 
appeared most threatening to his own cause was just what he 
expected to occur. Jervis, sharing his views, and already 
knowing his man, despatched him again to the Gulf of Genoa, 
within forty-eight hours of his arrival in San Fiorenzo, some- 



ADMIRAL, SIR JOHN JERVIS, EARL OF 
ST. VINCENT. 

Frojn an engraving by H. Robinson, after the painting by John 
Hoppner, in St. James's Palace. 



ON THE RIVIERA, 1796 185 

what to the disgust of the other captains, weary of being ever 
under the eye of an observant aud exacting admiral. " You 
did as you pleased in Lord Hood's time," said one grumbler, 
"the same in Admiral Hotham's, and now again with Sir 
John Jervis; it makes no difference to you who is commander- 
in-chief." The tone of these words, which in the reading are 
almost flattering, is evident from iSTelson's comment : " I re- 
turned a pretty strong answer to this speech." 

The object of his present mission was to ascertain what prep- 
arations for the expected descent were being made along the 
Eiviera, and to frustrate them as far as lay in the power of 
his squadron. He soon reported to Jervis that there was as 
yet no collection of vessels between Nice and Genoa. He 
then went on to reconnoitre Toulon, where he saw thirteen 
sail-of-the-line and five frigates lying in the outer roads, ready 
for sea, while five more of the line he learned were fitting at 
the arsenal. During the six days he remained off the port he 
noted that continual progress was being made in the enemy's 
preparations. At the end of this time, on the 23d of Feb- 
uruary, 1796, the admiral joined with the fleet, and the same 
afternoon the " Agamemnon " again parted company for 
Genoa, where she anchored on the 2d of March. 

The bustle on board the French ships confirmed Nelson's 
belief in the descent upon Tuscany ; and it is interesting here 
to quote his words upon the possibilities of the operation, re- 
garded from the naval point of view by one of the ablest of 
sea-generals. His opinion throws light upon the vexed ques- 
tion of the chances for and against Napoleon's projected 
invasion of England in 1805, — so far, that is, as the purely 
naval part of the latter project is concerned. He imagines as 
perfectly feasible ("I firmly believe," are his words) a com- 
bination at Toulon, of the fleet already there with divisions 
arriving from Cadiz and Brest, giving a total much superior 
to that actually with Jervis. This anticipates Napoleon's 
projected concentration under Villeneuve in the Channel. 
Nelson then continues : " One week's very superior fleet will 
effect a landing between Port Especia and Leghorn, I mean on 
that coast of Italy. . . . We may fight their fleet, but unless 
we can destroy them [i. e. the transports], their transports 
will push on and effect their landing. What will the French 



186 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

care for the loss of a few men-of-war ? It is nothing if they 
can get into Italy." " Make us masters of the channel for 
three days, and we are masters of the world/' wrote Napoleon 
to his admirals, with preparations far more complete than 
those Nelson was considering in 1796, and the distance across 
the Channel is less than from Vado to Spezia.^ 

With these convictions, Nelson immediately began to urge 
the necessity of again occupying Vado upon the Austrian com- 
mander-in-chief, through the medium of the British ministers 
to Genoa and Turin, with whom he was in frequent corre- 
spondence. If this were not done, he assured them, the 
enemy's fleet could with ease convoy a body of troops in 
transports to Italy, which they could not do with their present 
force unless they held Vado. It was also the only means, he 
added, by which the French could be prevented from receiv- 
ing plenty of provisions from Genoa. " Unless the Austrians 
get possession of a point of land, we cannot stop the coasting- 
trade." The latter argument, at any rate, was incontestable ; 
and it was also true that only by an advance to Vado could 
communication between the army and the British fleet be re- 
stored and maintained. Beaulieu, who had lately acquired a 
high reputation on the battle-fields of Belgium, had now suc- 
ceeded De Vins in the command. He was averse to opening 
the campaign by an advance to the sea, a feeling shared by 
the Austrians generally. He wished rather to await the 
enemy in the plains of Lombardy, and to follow up by a decisive 
blow the victory which he confidently expected there. It was 
in this connection that Nelson warned him, that he must not 
reckon upon the French following the line of action which he 
himself would prefer. 

The time for hostilities had now arrived ; from February to 
August being the period that Bonaparte, who knew the wars 

1 This indicates no opinion as to the fortune of the military operations in 
England, a landing once effected. It has, however, seemed to the author 
singular that men fail to consider that Napoleon would not have hesitated to 
abandon an army in England, as he did in Egj'pt and in Russia. A few 
hours' fog or calm, and a quick-pulling boat, would have landed himself again 
in France ; while the loss of 150,000 men, if it came to that, would have 
been cheaply bought with the damage such an organized force could have done 
London and the dock yards, not to speak of the moral effect. 



ON THE RIVIERA, 1796 187 

of Italy historically, considered the most proper for operations 
in the held, because the least sickly. But for the backward- 
ness of the spring, — for snow that year lay upon the moun- 
tains late into March, — the campaign doubtless would have 
been begun before. At the same time came fresh reports, 
probably set afloat by the French, of large reinforcements of 
seamen for the fleet and transports, in Toulon and Marseilles ; 
and Nelson furthermore received precise information that the 
enemy's movement would be in three columns, — one upon 
Ceva, which was Bonaparte's original scheme, one by the 
Bocchetta, and the third either to march through Genoese 
territory to Spezia, or to be carried thither by sea. Nelson 
felt no doubt that the last was the real plan, aiming at the 
occupation of Leghorn and entrance into the plains of Italy. 
The others he considered to be feints. There will in this 
opinion be recognized the persistency of his old ideas. In 
fact, he a month later revived his proposal of the previous 
year, to occupy San Remo, — this time with British troops. 

The urgency of the British, aided, perhaps, by the reports 
of the French designs, prevailed at last upon Beaulieu to ad- 
vance as requested ; nor can it be denied that the taking of 
Vado was in itself a most proper and desirable accessory ob- 
ject of the campaign. Unfortunately, the Austrian general, 
as is well known, fastening his eyes too exclusively upon the 
ulterior object of his movement, neglected to provide for the 
immediate close combination and mutual support of the organ- 
ized forces, — his own and the Piedmontese, — upon which 
final success would turn. Manoeuvring chiefly by his own 
left, towards the Riviera, and drawing in that direction the 
efforts of the centre and right, he weakened the allied line at 
the point where the Austrian right touched the Sardinian left. 
Through this thin curtain Bonaparte broke, dividing the one 
from the other, and, after a series of combats which extended 
over several days, rendering final that division, both political 
and military, for the remainder of the war. 

To one who has accustomed himself to see in Nelson the 
exponent of the chief obstacle Napoleon had to meet, — who 
has recognized in the Nile, in Copenhagen, and in Trafalgar, the 
most significant and characteristic incident attending the fail- 
ure of each of three great and widely separated schemes, — 



188 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

there is something impressive in noting the fact, generally 
disregarded, that Nelson was also present and assisting at 
the very opening scene of the famous campaign in Italy. This 
was not, certainly, the beginning of Napoleon's career any 
more than it was of Nelson's, who at the same moment hoisted 
for the first time his broad pendant as commodore ; but it was 
now that, upon the horizon of the future, toward which the 
world was fast turning, began to shoot upward the rays of 
the great captain's coming glory, and the sky to redden with 
the glare from the watchfires of the unseen armies which, at 
his command, were to revolutionize the face of Europe, caus- 
ing old things to pass away, never to be restored. 

The Austrians had asked for a clear assurance that their 
movement to the seashore should receive the support of the 
fleet, whether on the Riviera or at Spezia; Nelson having laid 
stress upon the possession of the latter, as a precaution against 
the invasion of Tuscany. These engagements he readily made. 
He would support any movement, and provide for the safety 
of any convoys by water. He told the aid-de-camp whom 
Beaulieu sent to him that, whenever the general came down 
to the sea-coast, he would be sure to find the ships; and to 
the question whether his squadron would not be risked there- 
by, he replied that it would be risked at all times to assist 
their allies, and, if lost, the admiral would find another. ''If 
I find the French convoy in any place where there is a proba- 
bility of attacking them," he wrote about this time, "you 
may depend they shall either be taken or destroyed at the 
risk of my squadron, . . . which is built to be risked on 
proper occasions." Here was indeed a spirit from which 
much might be expected. The fleet, doubtless, must be hus- 
banded in coastwise work so long as the French fleet remained, 
the legacy of past errors, — this Nelson clearly maintained; 
but such vessels as it could spare for co-operation were not to 
be deterred from doing their work by fear of harm befalling 
them. Warned by the recriminations of the last campaign, 
he had minutes taken of his interview with the Austrian 
officer, of the questions he himself put, as well as of the un- 
dertakings to which he pledged himself; and these he caused 
to be witnessed by the British consul at Genoa, who was 
present. 



ON THE RIVIERA, 1796 189 

On the 8th of April the "Agamemnou," having shortly 
before left the fleet in San Fioreuzo Bay, anchored at Genoa ; 
and the following morning the port saluted the broad pendant 
of the new commodore. The next day, April 10, Beaulieu 
attacked the French at Voltri. The " Agamemnon," with 
another sixty-four-gun ship, the " Diadem," and two frigates, 
sailed in the evening, and stood along the shore, by precon- 
certed arrangement, to cover the advance and harass the 
enemy. At 11 p. m. the ships anchored abreast the positions 
of the Austrian s, whose lights were visible from their decks 
— the sails hanging in the clewlines, ready for instant move- 
ment. They again got under way the following day, and con- 
tinued to the westward, seeing the French troops in retreat 
upon Savona. The attack. Nelson said, anticipated the hour 
fixed for it, which was daylight ; so that, although the ships 
had again started at 4 a. m. of the 11th, and reached betimes 
a point from which they commanded every foot of the road, 
the enemy had already passed. " Yesterday afternoon I re- 
ceived, at five o'clock, a note from the Baron de Malcamp [an 
aid-de-camp], to tell me that the general had resolved to at- 
tack the French at daylight this morning, and on the right of 
Voltri. Yet by the Austrians getting too forward in the 
afternoon, a slight action took place ; and, in the night, the 
French retreated. They were aware of their perilous situa- 
tion, and passed our ships in the night. Had the Austrians 
kept back, very few of the French could have escaped." 
Whether this opinion was wholly accurate may be doubted ; 
certain it is, however, that the corps which then passed rein- 
forced betimes the positions in the mountains, Avhich stead- 
fastly, yet barely, checked the Austrian attack there the 
following day. Beaulieu wrote that the well-timed co-opera- 
tion of the squadron had saved a number of fine troops, which 
must have been lost in the attack. This was so far satis- 
factory ; but the economizing of one's own force was not in 
Nelson's eyes any consolation for the escape of the enemy, 
whose number he estimated at four thousand. '•! beg you 
will endeavour to impress on those about the general," he 
wrote to the British minister, " the necessity of punctuality 
in a joint operation, for its success to be complete." 

There was, however, to be no more co-operation that year 



190 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

on the Kiviera. For a few days Nelson remained in snspense, 
hoping for good news, and still very far from imagining the 
hail-storm of ruinous blows which a master hand, as j'^et 
unrecognized, was even then dealing to the allied cause. On 
the 15th only he heard from Beaulieu, through the minister, 
that the Austrians had been repulsed at Montenotte ; and on 
the 16th he wrote to Collingwood that this reverse had been 
inflicted by the aid of those who slipped by his ships. On the 
18th news had reached him of the affairs at Millesimo and 
Dego, as well as of further disasters ; for on that day he wrote 
to the Duke of Clarence that the Austrians had taken posi- 
tion between jSTovi and Alessandria., with headquarters at 
Acqui. Their loss he gave as ten thousand. "Had the 
general's concerted time and plan been attended to," he re- 
peats, " I again assert, none of the enemy could have escaped 
on the night of the 10th. By what has followed, the disasters 
commenced from the retreat of those troops." 

There now remained, not the stirring employment of accom- 
panying and supporting a victorious advance, but only the 
subordinate, though most essential, duty of ilnpeding the com- 
munications of the enemy, upon which to a great extent must 
depend the issues on unseen and distant fields of war. To 
this Kelson's attention had already been turned, as one of the 
most important functions intrusted to him, even were the allies 
successful, and its difficulties had been impressed upon him by 
the experience of the previous year. But since then the con- 
ditions had become far more onerous. The defeat of the 
Austrians not only left Vado Bay definitively in the power of 
the French, but enabled the latter to push their control up to 
the very walls of Genoa, where they shortly established a 
battery and depot on the shore, at St. Pierre d'Arena, within 
three hundred yards of the mole. Thus the whole western 
Riviera, from the French border, was in possession of the 
enemy, who had also throughout the previous year so mul- 
tiplied and strengthened the local defences, that, to use 
Nelson's own words, " they have batteries from one end of 
the coast to the other, within shot of each other." Such were 
the means, also, by which Napoleon, the true originator 
of this scheme for securing these communications, insured 
the concentration of the flotilla at Boulogne, eight or ten 



I 



ON THE RIVIP:RA, ITOG 191 

years later, without serious molestation from the British 
Kavy. 

It may not unnaturally cause some surprise that, with the 
urgent need jSTelson had felt the year before for small armed 
vessels, to control the coastwise movements of the enemy, 
upon which so much then depended, no serious effort had been 
made to attach a flotilla of that kind to the fleet. The reply, 
however, to this very obvious criticism is, that the British 
could not supply the crews for them without crippling the 
etticiency of the cruising fleet; and it was justly felt then, as 
it was some years later at the time of the Boulogne flotilla, 
that the prime duty of Great Britain was to secure the sea 
against the heavy fleets of the enemy. If, indeed, the Italian 
States, whose immediate interests were at stake, had supplied 
seamen, as they might have done, these could quickly have 
been formed to the comparatively easy standard of discipline 
and training needed for such guerilla warfare, and, supported 
by the cruising fleet, might have rendered invaluable service, 
so long as the system of coast defence was defective. How 
far the rulers of those States, trained heretofore to the narrow- 
est considerations of personal policy, could have been induced 
to extend this assistance, is doubtful. They did nothing, or 
little. 

Nelson measured the odds against him accurately, and saw 
that the situation was well-nigh hopeless. Nevertheless, there 
was a chance that by vigorous and sustained action the enemy 
might be not only impeded, but intimidated. He sought 
earnestly to obtain the co-operation of the Sardinians and 
Neapolitans in maiming a flotilla, with which to grapple the 
convoys as they passed in shore. By this means, and the 
close securing of the coast by the vessels of his squadron, 
something might be effected. He contemplated also using the 
crews of the British vessels themselves in gunboats and light- 
armed feluccas ; but he said frankly that, important as was 
the duty of intercepting communications, the efficiency of 
the fleet was more important still, and that to divert their 
crews overmuch to such objects would hazard the vessels 
themselves, and neutralize their proper work. The resort, 
therefore, could only be occasional. The general political com- 
plexion of affairs in the Mediterranean depended greatly upon 



102 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the presence aud readiness of the British fleet, and its efficiency 
therefore could not be risked, to any serious extent, except 
for the object of destroying the enemy's naval forces, to which 
it was then the counterpoise. 

Acting, however, on his determination to co-operate effec- 
tively, at whatever risk to his own squadron, — to the detach- 
ment, that is, which the commander-in-chief thought could 
safely be spared from his main force for the secondary object, 
— Nelson applied all his intelligeiice and all his resolution to 
the task before him. In words of admirable force and clear- 
ness, he manifests that exclusiveness of purpose, which 
Napoleon justly characterized as the secret of great operations 
and of great successes. '' I have not a thought," he writes to 
the minister at Genoa, "on any subject separated from the 
immediate object of my command, nor a wish to be employed 
on any other service. So far the allies," he continues, with 
no unbecoming self-assertion, " are fortunate, if I may bo 
allowed the expression, in having an officer of this character." 
He felt til is singleness of mind, which is so rare a gift, to be 
the more important, from his very consciousness that the diffi- 
culty of his task approached the border of impossibility. " I 
cannot command winds and weather. A sea-officer cannot, like 
a land-officer, form plans ; his object is to embrace the happy 
moment which now and then offers, ■ — it may be this day, 
not for a month, and perhaps never." Nothing can be more 
suggestive of his greatest characteristics than this remark, 
which is perhaps less applicable to naval officers to-day than 
it was then. In it we may fairly see one of those clearly held 
principles which serve a man so well in moments of doubt and 
perplexity. At the Nile and at Trafalgar, and scarcely less at 
St. Vincent and Copenhagen, the seizure of opportunity, the 
unfaltering resolve " to embrace the happy moment," is per- 
haps even more notable and decisive than the sagacity which so 
accurately chose the proper method of action. 

Nelson's deeds did not belie his words. Immediately after 
definite news of Beaulieu's retreat to the Po was received. Sir 
John Jervis appeared off Genoa with the fleet. The " Aga- 
memnon " joined him, and remained in company until the 23d 
of April, when by Nelson's request she sailed on a cruise to 
the westward. From that time until the 4th of June she was 



ON THE RIVIERA, 1796 193 



actively employed between Mce aud Genoa, engaging the 
batteries, and from time to time cutting out vessels from the 
anchorages. His attempts were more or less successful ; on 
one occasion he captured a considerable portion of the French 
siege-train going forward for the siege of Mantua ; but upon 
the whole the futility of the attempt became apparent. 
•''Although I will do my utmost, I do not believe it is in my 
power to prevent troops or stores from passing along shore. 
Heavy swells, light breezes, and the near approach to the 
shore which these vessels go are our obstacles. . . . You may 
perceive I am distressed. Do' you really think we are of any 
use here ? If not, we may serve our country much more by 
being in other places. The Levant and coast of Spain call 
aloud for ships, and they are, I fancy, employed to no purpose 
here." The position was almost hopelessly complicated by 
the Genoese coasters, which plied their trade close to the 
beach, between the mother city and the little towns occupied 
by the French, and which Nelson felt unable to touch. 
"There are no vessels of any consequence in any bay from 
Monaco to Vado," he wrote to Jervis ; " but not less than a 
hundred Genoese are ever}'- day passing, which may or may not 
have stores for the French." " The French have no occasion 
to send provisions from France. The coasts are covered with 
Genoese vessels with corn, wine, hay, &c., for places on the 
coast ; and they know I have no power to stop the trade with 
the towns. I saw this day not less than forty-five Genoese 
vessels, all laden, passing along the coast. What can I do ? " 
Although not dehnitely so stated, it is shown, by an allu- 
sion, that Nelson at this time entertained, among other ideas, 
the project of keeping afloat in transports a body of three 
thousand troops, which should hover upon the coast, and by 
frequent descents impose a constant insecurity upon the long 
line of communications from Nice to Genoa. The same plan 
was advocated by him against the Spanish peninsula in later 
years. ^ Of this conception it may be said that it is sound in 
principle, but in practice depends largely upon the distance 
from the centre of the enemy's power at which its execution 
is attempted. Upon the Spanish coast, in 1808, in the hands 
of Lord Cochrane, it was undoubtedly a most effective second- 

1 Naval Chronicle, vol. xxi. p. 60. 
13 



194 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ary operation ; but when that distinguished officer proposed 
to apply a like method, even though on a much greater scale, 
to the western coast of France, against the high-road south of 
Bordeaux, it can scarcely be doubted that he would have met 
a severe disappointment, such as attended similar actions 
upon the Channel in the Seven Years' War. On the liiviera, in 
1795, this means might have been decisive; in 1796, in the 
face of Bonaparte's fortified coast, it could scarcely have been 
more than an annoyance. At all events, the advocacy of it 
testifies to the acuteness and energy with which Nelson threw 
himself into the operations espe'ciaJly intrusted to him. 

His letters during this period reflect the varying phases 
of hope and of discouragement; but, upon the whole, the 
latter prevails. There is no longer the feeling of neglect by 
his superior, of opportunity slipping away through the inade- 
quate force which timid counsels and apathetic indolence al- 
lowed him. He sees that the chance which was permitted to 
pass unimproved has now gone forever. " As the French can- 
not want supplies to be brought into the Gulf of Genoa, for 
their grand army," he writes to the admiral, " I am still of 
opinion that if our frigates are wanted for other services, they 
may very well be spared from the Gulf." And again, " As 
the service for which my distinguishing pendant was intended 
to be useful, is nearly if not quite at an end, I assure you I 
shall have no regret in striking it." Sir John Jervis, he 
asserts with pride, has cruised with the fleet in the Gulf of 
Genoa, close to shore, " where I will venture to say no fleet 
ever cruised before — no officer can be more zealous or able to 
render any service in our profession to England ; " yet from 
the decks of the flagship he and Nelson had helplessly watched 
a convoy passing close in shore, and directly to windward, but 
wholly out of reach of their powers of offence. At times, in- 
deed, somewhat can be accomplished. For several days the 
" Agamemnon " " has kept close to shore, and harassed the 
enemy's troops very much. Field pieces are drawn out on 
our standing in shore. You must defend me if any Genoese 
towns are knocked down by firing at enemy's batteries. I 
will not fire first." Six weeks later he writes again : " Our 
conduct has so completely alarmed the French that all their 
coasting trade is at an end ; even the corvette, gunboats, &c., 



LEAVES THE "AGAMEMNON" 195 

which were moored under the fortress of Vado, have not 
thought themselves in security, but are all gone into Savona 
Mole, and unbent their sails." 

This movement, however, which he notes under the date of 
June 23, proceeded probably less from fear than from the 
growing indiiference of the French concerning their communi- 
cations by water, now that their occupation of the line of the 
Adige Eiver had solidified their control over the ample re- 
sources of Piedmont and Lombardy. At the very hour when 
Nelson was thus writing, he learned also the critical condition 
of Leghorn through the approach of a French division, the 
mere sending of which showed Bonaparte's sense of his 
present security of tenure. 

jSTelson had severed by this time his long and affectionate 
connection with the battered "Agamemnon." On the 4th of 
June the old ship anchored at San Fiorenzo, having a few 
days before, with the assistance of the squadron, cut out from 
under the French batteries the vessels carrying Bonaparte's 
siege-train, as well as the gunboats which convo3'^ed them. 
There was then in the bay the •' Egmont," seventy-four, whose 
commander had expressed to the admiral his wish to return to 
England. Jervis, therefore, had ordered Nelson to the spot, 
to make the exchange, and the latter thought the matter 
settled ; but to his surprise he found the captain did not wish 
to leave the station unless the ship went also. This did away 
with the vacancy he looked to fill ; and, as the " Agamemnon," 
from her condition, must be the first of the fleet to go home, 
it seemed for the moment likely that he would have to go in 
her with a convoy then expected in the bay. "■ I remained in 
a state of uncertainty for a week," he wrote to his wife ; 
"and had the corn ships, which were momentarily expected 
from Naples, arrived, I should have sailed for England." 
The dilemma caused him great anxiety ; for the longing for 
home, which he had felt in the early part of the winter, had 
given way entirely before the pride and confidence he felt in 
the new admiral, and the keen delight in active service he 
was now enjoying. " I feel full of gratitude for your good 
wishes towards me," he wrote to Jervis in the first moment of 
disappointment, " and highly flattered by your desire to have 
me continue to serve under your command, which I own would 



19(5 THE LIFE OF KELSON 

afford me infinite satisfaction." The following day he is still 
more restless. "I am not less anxious than yesterday for 
having slept since my last letter. Indeed, Sir, I cannot bear 
the thoughts of leaving your command." He then proposed 
several ways out of the difficulty, which reduced themselves, 
in short, to a readiness to hoist his pendant in anything, if 
only he could remain. 

No violent solution was needed, as several applicants came 
forward when Nelson's wish Avas known. On the 11th of 
June, 1796, he shifted his broad pendant to the " Cajjtain," 
of seventy-four guns, taking with him most of his officers. 
Soon afterwards the "Agamemnon " sailed for England. Up 
to the last day of his stay on board, Nelson, although a com- 
modore, was also her captain ; it was not until two months 
after joining his new ship that another captain was appointed 
to her, leaving to himself the duties of commodore only. In 
later years the " Agamemnon " more than once bore a share in 
his career. She was present at Copenhagen and at Trafalgar, 
being in this final scene under the command of an officer who 
had served in her as his first lieutenant, and was afterwards 
his flag-captain at the Nile. In 1809 she was totally lost in 
the river La Plata, having run aground, and then settled on 
one of her anchors, which, upon the sudden shoaling of the 
water, had been let go to bring her up.^ It is said that there 
were then on board several seamen who had been with her 
during Nelson's command. 

On the 13th of June the "Captain" sailed from San 
Fiorenzo Bay, and on the 17th joined the fleet off Cape Sicie, 
near Toulon, where Jervis, six weeks before, had established 
the first of those continuous close blockades which afterwards, 
off Brest, became associated with his name, and proved so 
potent a factor in the embarrassments that drove Napoleon to 
his ruin. There were then twelve British ships off the port, 
while inside the enemy had eleven ready for sea, and four or 
five more fitting. The following day Nelson again left the 
fleet, and on the 21st of June arrived at Genoa, where very 
serious news was to be received. 

The triumphant and hitherto unchecked advance of Bona- 

1 An account of tliis disaster, said to he tliat of an eye-witness, is to be 
found in Colburn's United Service Journal, 1846, part i. 



IMPORTANCE OF LEGHORN 197 

parte had greatly encouraged the French party in Corsica, 
which had been increased by a number of malcontents, dis- 
satisfied with their foreign rulers. Owing to the disturbed 
condition of the interior, the British troops had been drawn 
down to the seacoast. Bonaparte, from the beginning of his 
successes, had kept in view the deliverance of his native 
island, which he expected to effect by the exertions of her 
own people, stimulated and supported by the arrival upon the 
spot of Corsican officers and soldiers from the French armies. 
These refugees, proceeding in parties of from ten to twenty 
each, in small boats, movable by sail or oars, and under cover 
of night, could seldom be stopped, or even detected, by the 
British cruisers, while making the short trip, of little more 
than a hundred miles, from Genoa, Nice, and Leghorn. The 
latter port, from its nearness, was particularly favorable to 
these enterprises ; but, although neutral, and freely permit- 
ting the ingress and egress of vessels belonging to both 
belligerents, its facilities for supporting a Corsican uprising 
Avere not so great as they would be if the place were held for 
the French. For this reason, partl}^, Bonaparte had decided 
to seize it ; and he was still more moved to do so by the fact that 
it was a centre of British trade, that it contributed much to 
the supply and repair of the British fleet, and that the pres- 
ence of vessels from the latter enabled an eye to be kept upon 
the movements of the Corsicans, and measures to be taken for 
impeding them. 

" The enemy possessing themselves of Leghorn," Nelson had 
written in the middle of March, when expecting them to do 
so by a coastwise expedition, "cuts off all our supplies, such 
as fresh meat, fuel, and various other most essential neces- 
saries ; and, of course, our fleet cannot always [in that case] be 
looked for on the northern coast of Italy." Bonaparte had not, 
indeed, at that time, contemplated any such ex-centric move- 
ment, which, as things then were, would have risked so large 
a part of his army out of his own control and his own support ; 
but in the middle of June, having driven the Austrians for the 
moment into the Tyrol, consolidated his position upon the 
Adige, established the siege of Mantua, and enforced order 
and submission throughout the fertile valley of the Po, 
which lay in rear of his array and amply supplied it with the 



398 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

necessaries of subsistence, he felt not only able to spare the 
force required, but that for the security of the right flank and 
rear of his army it had become essential to do so. The Papacy 
and Naples, although they had contributed little to the active 
campaigning of the allies, were still nominally at war Avith 
France, and might possibly display more energy now that opera- 
tions were approaching their own frontiers. Should the British 
take possession of Leghorn with a body of troops, — their own 
or Neapolitan, — the port would remain a constant menace to the 
operations and communications of the French, and especially 
at the critical moments when the Austrians advanced to the 
relief of Mantua, as they must be expected to do, and actually 
did on four several occasions during the succeeding six months. 
Bonaparte, as he was ever wont, diligently improved the 
opportunity permitted to him by the need of the Austrians to 
reorganize and reinforce Beaulieu's beaten army before again 
taking the field. Threatened, as often again in later years, 
by enemies in divergent directions, he with the utmost promp- 
titude and by the most summary measures struck down the 
foe on one side, before the other could stir. Occupying 
Verona in the first days of June, he immediately afterwards 
detached to the southward a corps under Augereau to enter 
the Papal States ; and at the same time another small division, 
commanded by General Vaubois, started from the upper valley 
of the Po, ostensibly destined to proceed against Eome by 
passing through Tuscany. The effect of Augereau's move- 
ment, which was closely followed by the commander-in-chief 
in person, was to bring both Naples and the Pope speedily to 
terms. An armistice was signed by the former on the 5th, 
and by the latter on the 24th of June. Vaubois, on the other 
hand, after passing the Arno below Florence, instead of con- 
tinuing on to Siena, as the Grand Duke had been assured that 
he would, turned sharp to the westward, and on the 28th of 
June entered Leghorn, Avhich was thenceforth held by the 
French, Thus within a brief month were the British deprived 
of two allies, lethargic, it is true, in actual performance, but 
possessed of a degree of potential strength that could not but 
enter largely into Bonaparte's anxieties ; while at the same 
time they lost the use of a seaport that had heretofore been 
considered essential to their support. 



THE FRENCH OCCUPY LEGHORN 199 

Rumors of Vaubois' movement reached Nelson in Genoa at 
noon of June 23, but somewhat vaguely. " Eeports are all we 
have here," he wrote to Jervis the same clay, " nothing official 
from the armies ; " but he thought the situation critical, and 
started without delay for Leghorn. Arriving there on the 
morning of June 27, after a passage rendered tedious by light 
airs and calms, he found the British merchant vessels that 
had been in the harbor, to the number of nearly forty sail, 
already under way, laden with British merchants and their 
property, and standing out under convoy of several ships of 
war ; while in pursuit of them — a singular indication of the 
neutrality possible to small States like Tuscany and Genoa at 
that time — were a dozen French privateers, which had been 
lying beside them within the mole. One or two of the depart- 
ing vessels were thus taken. 

The first impression upon Nelson's mind was that the occu- 
pation of Leghorn was only the prelude to an invasion of 
Corsica in force. " I have no doubt," he wrote to the Viceroy, 
" but the destination of the French army was Corsica, and it 
is natural to suppose their fleet was to amuse ours whilst they 
cross from Leghorn." Thus reasoning, he announced his 
purpose of rejoining the admiral as soon as possible, so as not 
to lose his share in the expected battle. " My heart would 
break," he says to Jervis, " to be absent at such a glorious 
time; " but it is difficult to understand why he imagined that 
the French would transfer their army into the destitution of 
the Corsican mountains from the fertile plains of Lombardy, 
abandoning the latter to their enemy, and exchanging their 
assured communications with France for the uncertainties and 
irregularities of a water transit over seas commanded by the 
British fleet. The tenure of the island, as he well knew, 
depended upon the willing support of the Corsicans them- 
selves ; in the equal balance of the existing war, neither 
belligerent could maintain its control against the opposition 
of the natives. 

This anticipation, in its disregard of the perfectly obvious 
conditions, was scarcely worthy of Nelson's real native 
sagacity, and shows clearly how much a man, even of genius, 
is hampered in the conclusions of actual life by the lack of 
that systematic ordering and training of the ideas which it is 



200 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the part of education to supply. Genius is one thing, the 
acquirements of an accomplished — instructed — officer are 
another, yet there is between the two nothing incompatible, 
rather the reverse; and when to the former, which nature 
alone can give, — and to Nelson did give, — is added the con- 
scious recognition of principles, the practised habit of view- 
ing, under their clear light, all the circumstances of a situation, 
assigning to each its due weight and relative importance, then, 
and then only, is the highest plane of military greatness 
attained. Whether in natural insight Xelson fell short of 
Napoleon's measure need not here be considered ; that he was 
at this time far inferior, in the powers of a trained intellect, 
to his younger competitor in the race for fame, is manifest by 
the readiness with which he accepted such widely ex-centric 
conjectures as that of an attempt by sea upon Leghorn at the 
opening of the campaign, and now upon Corsica by a great 
part, if not the whole, of the army of Italy. 

'' On the side of the French," says Jomini, speaking of 
Bonaparte at this very period, " was to be seen a young 
warrior, trained in the best schools, endowed with an ardent 
imagination, brought up upon the examples of antiquity, 
greedy of glory and of power, knowing thoroughly the Apen- 
nines, in which he had distinguished himself in 1794, and 
already measuring with a practised eye the distances he must 
overpass before becoming master of Italy. To these advan- 
tages for a war of invasion, Bonaparte united an inborn 
genius, and clearly established principles, the fruits of an 
enlightened theory." 

Jomini doubtless may be considered somewhat too absolute 
and pedantic in his insistence upon definite formulation of 
principles ; but in these words is nevertheless to be recognized 
the fundamental difference between these two great warriors, 
a difference by which the seaman was heavily handicapped in 
the opening of his career. As time passed on, responsibilitj", 
the best of educators, took under her firm and steady guid- 
ance the training of his yet undeveloped genius, gleams of 
which from time to time, but fitfully and erratically, illumine 
his earlier correspondence. The material was there from the 
first, but inchoate, ill-ordered, confused, and therefore not 
readily available to correct passing impressions, wild rumors, 



COMMERCIAL BLOCIv^iDE OF LEGHORN 201 

01- even to prevent the radically false conceptions of an 
enemy's possible movements, such as we have had before us. 
Bonaparte, furthermore, whose career began amid the troubled 
scenes of a revolution which had shattered all the fetters of 
established custom, — so strong in England to impede a man's 
natural progress, — had enjoyed already for some time the 
singular advantage of being military adviser to the Directory, 
a duty Avhich compelled him to take a broad view of all cur- 
rent conditions, to consider them in their mutual relations, 
and not narrowly to look to one sphere of operations, without 
due reference to its effects upon others. 

As to the invasion of Corsica after the manner he had 
imagined, Xelson was soon undeceived. Bonaparte himself, 
after a hurried visit to Leghorn, again departed to press the 
siege of Mantua, having assured himself that for a measurable 
time he had nothing to apprehend from movements on his 
flank and rear. Orders were received from Jervis on the 
2d of July to institute a commercial blockade of Leghorn, 
permitting no vessels to enter or depart. The conduct of this 
business, as well as the protection of British trade in that 
district, and the support of the Viceroy in securing Corsica 
against the attempts of French partisans, were especially 
intrusted to Xelson, whose movements during the following 
months, until the first of October, were consequently confined 
to the waters between Corsica and Tuscany, while the Riviera 
west of Genoa saw him no more. Leghorn became the chief 
centre of his activities. These redoubled with the demands 
made upon him ; his energy rose equal to every call. A few 
weeks before, he had made a conditional application to the 
admiral, though with evident reluctance, for a short leave of 
absence on account of his health. '• I don't much like what I 
have written," he confessed at the end of his difiident request, 
and some days later he again alludes to the subject. " My 
complaint is as if a girth was buckled taut over my breast, 
and my endeavours, in the night, is to get it loose. To say the 
truth, when I am actively emplo3'ed, I am not so bad. If the 
Service will admit of it, perhaps I shall at a future day take 
your leave." The service now scarcely admitted it, and the 
active duty apparently restored his health ; at all events we 
now hear no more of it. Everything yielded to the require- 



202 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



ments of the war. " The Captain has wants, but I intend she 
shall last till the autumn : for I know, when once we begin, 
our wants are innumerable." 

In his still limited sphere, and on all matters directly con- 
nected with it and his professional duties, his judgment was 
sound and acute, as his activity, energy, and zeal were un- 
tiring. The menace to Corsica from the fall of Leghorn was 
accurately weighed and considered. Midway between the 
two lay the since famous island of Elba, a dependence of 
Tuscany, so small as to be held readily by a few good troops, 
and having a port large enough, in JSTelson's judgment, to 
harbor the British fleet with a little management. " The way 
to Corsica," he wrote to the viceroy, "if our fleet is at hand, 
is through Elba ; for if they once set foot on that island, it is 
not all our fleet can stop their passage to Corsica." The Vice- 
roy took upon himself to direct that the island be occupied by 
the British. Nelson coraj)lied without waiting for Jervis's 
orders, and on the 10th of July a detachment of troops, con- 
voyed by his squadron, were landed in the island, and took 
charge, without serious opposition, of the town of Porto 
Ferrajo and the works for the defence of tJie harbor. The 
measure was justified upon the ground that the seizure of 
Leghorn by the French showed that Tuscany was unable to 
assure Elba against a similar step, prejudicial to the British 
tenure in Corsica. The administration remained in the hands 
of the Tuscan officials, the British occupation being purely 
military, and confined to the places necessary for that purpose. 
The blockade of Leghorn was enforced with the utmost 
rigor and great effectiveness. For a long time no vessels 
were allowed to go either out or in. Afterwards the rule was 
gradually relaxed, so far as to permit neutrals to leave the 
port in ballast; but none entered. The trade of the place 
was destroyed. Nelson hoped, and for a time expected, that 
the populace, accustomed to a thriving commerce, and draw- 
ing their livelihood from its employments, would rise against 
the feeble garrison, whose presence entailed upon them such 
calamities ; but herein, of course, he underestimated the coer- 
cive power of a few resolute men, organized for mutual sup- 
port, over a mob of individuals, incapable of combined action 
and each uncertain of the constancy of his fellows. 



PLANS AN ASSAULT ON LEGHORN 203 

The Austrian preparations in the Tyrol gradually matured 
as the month of July wore on. Towards its end Marshal 
Wurmser, the successor of Beaulieu, advanced for the relief 
of Mantua and the discomfiture of Bonaparte, whose numbers 
were much inferior to his opponents. The projected move- 
ment was of course known to the British, and its first results 
in raising the siege of Mantua, and throwing reinforcements 
into the place, gave them great hopes. Amid the conflicting 
rumors of the succeeding days, the wonderful skill and success 
of Bonaparte, who overthrew in detail forces greatly superior 
in the aggregate to his own, escaped notice for the time ; the 
superficial incidents of his abandoning his previous positions 
alone received attention, and nothing less than his retreat in 
confusion was confidently expected. Nelson, justly estimat- 
ing the importance of Leghorn, and over-sanguine of the 
support he might hope from the inhabitants, projected a sud- 
den assault upon the town, by troops to be drawn from the 
garrisons in Corsica, supported by seamen of the squadron. 
Speaking of the steady intercourse between that island and 
the mainland by way of Leghorn, he says : "The only way is 
to cut at the root, for whilst Leghorn is open, this communi- 
cation must constantly be going on. This moment brings to 
my eyes a body of about 200 men, with the Corsican flag 
carrying before them ; they are partly from Nice, and joined 
by Genoese, &c., on the road. The time approaches," he 
rightly forecasts, " when we shall either have to fight them 
in Corsica or Leghorn." The imminence of the danger was 
evident. " Our affairs in Corsica are gloomy," he had already 
written to the Duke of Clarence. " There is a very strong 
republican party in that island, and they are well supported 
from France; the first favourable moment, they will certainly 
act against us." 

The details of the intended assault upon Leghorn do not 
appear, and it is probable that they never passed beyond the 
stage of discussion to that of acceptance, although he alludes 
to the plans as "laid." Clear-sighted for the key of a situ- 
ation, and ardent to strike "at the root," as five years later 
in the Baltic he was eager to cut away the Eussian root of 
the Armed Neutrality, instead of hewing off the Danish 
branch. Nelson urged the speedy adoption of the measure, 



204 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and pressed his own fitness to harmonize the land and sea 
forces under one command, in virtue of his rank as Colonel 
of Marines. " Leghorn is in such a state," he writes to Elliot 
on the 5th of August, •' that a respectable force landed, Avould, 
I have every reason to suppose, insure the inunediate posses- 
sion of the town. Not less than a thousand troops should be 
sent, to which I will add every soldier in my squadron, and 
a party of seamen to make a show. In every way, pray con- 
sider this as private, and excuse my opinions. I well know 
the difficulty of getting a proper person to command this 
party. Firmness, and that the people of Leghorn should 
know the person commanding, will most assuredly have a 
great effect. A cordial co-operation with me (for vanity 
apart, no one is so much feared or respected in Leghorn as 
myself) is absolutely necessary. I am going further : we 
know the jealousy of the army against the navy, but I am by 
the King's commission a Colonel in the army from June 1st, 
1795." After discussing this difficult question of professional 
susceptibilities, he concludes : " You will consider, Sir, all 
these points, and form a much better judgment than I can, 
only give me credit that the nearest wish of my heart is to 
serve my King and my Country, at every personal risk and 
consideration. It has ever pleased God to prosper all my 
undertakings, and I feel confident of His blessing on this 
occasion. I ever consider my motto, Fides et Opera.'' ^ 

Having, with true strategic insight, chosen the place where 
the blow ought to be struck for the preservation of Corsica, 
he pressed, with characteristic fervor, the necessit}'- of taking 
risks. He discusses details indeed ; he proposes no mere ad- 
venture, real as was his personal enjoyment of danger and 
action. What man can do, shall be done ; but being done, 
still " something must be left to chance. Our only considera- 
tion, is the honour and benefit to our Country worth the risk ? 
If it is (and I think so), in God's name let us get to work, 
and hope for His blessing on our endeavours to liberate a 
people who have been our sincere friends." Hearing at the 
same time that an army officer of general rank will have the 
command instead of himself, he adds : " Pray assure him 

^ This motto was subsequently adopted by Nelson, when arms were as- 
signed to him as a Knight of the Bath, in May, 1797. 



HIS AMBITION AND SELF-EELIANCE 205 

there is nothing I feel greater pleasure in than hearing he is 
to command. Assure him of my most sincere wishes for his 
speedy success, and that he shall have every support and 
assistance from me." Truly, in generosity as in ardor, 
Nelson was, to use the fine old phrase, " all for the service." 

The project upon Leghorn had the approval of the Viceroy 
and of Jervis ; but the latter, while expressing perfect reli- 
ance upon '' the promptitude of Commodore Nelson," was 
clear that the attempt must depend upon the continued ad- 
vance of the Austrians. This was also Nelson's own view. 
" All will be well, I am satisfied, provided Wurmser is vic- 
torious ; upon this ground only have I adopted the measure." 
This qualification redeems the plan from the reproach of 
rashness, which otherwise might have been applied to the 
somewhat desperate undertaking of carrying a fortified town 
by such a feat of hardihood. It loses thus the color of reck- 
lessness, and falls into place as one part of a great common 
action, to harass the retreat of a beaten enemy, and to insure 
the security of one's own positions. 

On the 15th of August, when the above words were written, 
Nelson was still ignorant of the Austrian defeats at Lonato 
and Castiglione, nearly two weeks before, and of their sub- 
sequent retreat to the Tyrol. A rumor of the reverse had 
reached him through Florence, but he gave it little attention, 
as the French in Leghorn were not claiming a victory. On 
the 19th he knew it definitely, and had to abandon the ex- 
pectation, confided to his brother, that the next letter seen 
from him would be in the " Public Gazette." " An exjjedi- 
tion is thought of, and of course I shall be there, for most of 
these services fall to my lot." " One day or other," he had 
written to his wife, apparently with this very enterprise in 
mind, "I will have a long Gazette to myself; I feel that such 
an opportunity will be given me. I cannot," he continued 
with prophetic self-reliance, " if I am in the field of glory, bo 
kept out of sight." 

During the remainder of the month he continued to be 
amused with those unfounded reports of victories, which are 
among the invariable concomitants of all wars, and which his 
sanguine temperament and peculiar readiness to trust others 
made him especially ready to accept. He was not wholly 



206 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

unaware of this tendency in himself^ though he continued to 
repeat with apparent belief reports of the most startling and 
erroneous character, and never seems to have appreciated, up 
to the time of his leaving the Mediterranean, the astonishing 
quickness and sagacity with which Bonaparte frustrated the 
overwhelming combinations against him. " We Ijear what we 
wish," he says on one occasion. '' The Toulon information 
is, as I always thought it, pleasant to know but never to be 
depended upon; all is guess. I have long had reason to 
suspect great part is fabricated in Genoa ; " but he was con- 
tinually deceived by it. 

Throughout the discomfitures of the Austrians on shore, the 
purely naval part of the Avar continued to be successfully 
maintained. Jervis, with unrelaxing grip, kept his position 
before Toulon, effectually checking every attempt of the 
French fleet to escape unobserved into the open, while Nelson 
shut up Leghorn so rigorously that the enemy lost even the 
partial advantage, as a port of supply, Avhich they had before 
drawn from its neutrality. But, during this pregnant sum- 
mer, grave causes for anxiety were rolling up in the western 
basin of the Mediterranean. The attitude of Spain had long 
been doubtful, so much so that before Sir John Jervis left 
England, in the previous autumn, the ministry had deliberated 
upon the contingency of her declaring Avar, and a conditional 
decision had been reached to evacuate Corsica, if that event 
occurred. During the spring of 1796 reports of coming 
hostilities Avere current in the fleet. Nelson's first opinion 
was that, if they ensued, there Avas no object in remaining in 
the Mediterranean, except to preserve Corsica from the 
French. This, he thought, Avas not a sufficient motive, nor 
had the conduct of the natives entitled them to protection. 
With all the powers making peace with France, he hoped 
Great Britain Avould leave the Mediterranean. This, how- 
ever, was but a passing expression of discouragement, Avhence 
he soon rallied, and, with a spirit Avorthy of his race, Avhich 
Avas soon to face all Europe undismayed, his courage mounted 
continually as the storm drew nearer. 

The summer of 1796 was in truth the period of transition, 
when the victories of Bonaparte, by bringing near a cessation 
of warfare upon the land, Avere sweeping from the scene the 



I 



OPINION OF QUITTING MEDITERRANEAN 207 

accessories that confused the view of the future, removing 
conditions and details which perplexed men's attention, and 
bringing into clear relief the one field upon which the contest 
was finally to be fought out, and the one foe, the British sea- 
power, upon whose strength and constancy would hinge the 
issues of the struggle. The British Nav}^, in the slight 
parson of its indomitable champion, was gradually rising to 
the appreciation of its own might, and gathering together its 
energies to endure single-handed the gigantic strife, with a 
spirit unequalled in its past history, glorious as that had often 
been. From 1796 began the rapid ascent to that short noon- 
tide of unparalleled brilliancy, in which Nelson's fame out- 
shone all others, and which may be said to have begun with 
the Spanish declaration of war, succeeded though that was by 
the retreat in apparent discomfiture from the Mediterranean, 
now at hand. 

The approach of this extraordinary outburst of maritime 
vigor is aptly foretokened in the complete change, gradual 
yet rapid, that passed over Nelson's opinions, from the time 
when rumors of a Spanish war first assumed probability, uj) 
to the moment when the fact became tangible by the appear- 
ance of the Spanish fleet in the waters of Corsica. Ac- 
centuated thus in a man of singular perceptions and heroic 
instincts, it further affords an interesting illustration of the 
manner in which a combative race — for Nelson was through 
and through a child of his people — however at first averse 
to war, from motives of well-understood interest, gradually 
warms to the idea, and finally grows even to welcome the 
fierce joy which Avarriors feel, as the clash of arms draws 
near. '' If all the states of Italy make peace," he writes on 
the 20tli of May, "we have nothing to look to but Corsica; 
which, in the present state of the inhabitants, is not, in my 
opinion, an object to keep us in the Mediterranean : we shall, 
I hope, quit it, and employ our fleet more to our advantage." 
" Eeports here," on the 20th of June, " are full of a Spanisli 
war. If that should be the case, we shall probably draw 
towards Gibraltar and receive large reinforcements." 

On the 15th of August, however, he writes to Jervis, be- 
traying the incipient revulsion, as yet not realized, against 
abandoning the Mediterranean, which was already affecting 



208 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the current of his thoughts. " I hope we shall have settled 
Leghorn before the Dons, if they intend it, arrive. I have 
still my doubts as to a Spanish war ; and if there should be 
one, with your management I have no fears. Should the 
Dons come, I shall then hope I may be spared,^ in my own 
person, to help to make you at least a Viscount." A few 
days later, having meantime heard of Wurmser's disasters at 
Castiglione : " Austria, I suppose, must make peace, and we 
sliall, as usual, be left to fight it out : however, at the worst, 
we only give up Corsica, an acquisition which I believe we 
cannot keep, and our fleet will draw down the Mediterra- 
nean ; " but at the same time, August 19, he writes to the 
Duke of Clarence with glowing hopes and rising pride: "I 
hope Government will not be alarmed for our safety — I mean 
more than is proper. Under such a commander-in-chief as 
Sir John Jervis nobody has any fears. We are now twenty- 
two sail of the line; the combined fleet will not be above 
thirty-five sail of the line. I will venture my life Sir John 
Jervis defeats them. This country is the most favourable 
possible for skill with an inferior fleet ; for the winds are so 
variable, that some one time in twenty-four hours you must 
be able to attack a part of a large fleet, and the other will be 
becalmed, or have a contrary wind." That the Duke trembled 
and demurred to such odds is not wonderful ; but the words 
have singular interest, both as showing the clear tactical ap- 
prehensions that held sway in Nelson's mind, and still more, 
at the moment then present, as marking unmistakably his 
gradual conversion to the policy of remaining in the 
Mediterranean, and pursuing the most vigorous aggressive 
measures. 

A fortnight after this letter was written, Genoa, under 
pressure from Bonaparte, closed her ports against British 
ships, interdicting even the embarkation of a drove of cattle, 
already purchased, and ready for shipment to the fleet off 
Toulon. Nelson immediately went there to make inquiries, 
and induce a revocation of the orders. While the "Captain" 
lay at anchor in the roads, three of the crew deserted, and 
when her boats were sent to search for them they were fired 

1 That is, apparently, from detached service, and ordered to the main 
fleet. 



HIS CONFIDENCE IN THE FLEET 209 

upon by a French battery, established near the town. Nelson, 
in retaliation, seized a French supply ship from under the 
guns of the battery, whereupon the Genoese forts opened 
against the " Captain," which had meantime got under way 
and was lying-to off the city. Nelson did not return the fire 
of the latter, which was kept up for two hours, but threw 
three shot into the French battery, " to mark," as he said, the 
power of the English to bombard the town, and their human- 
ity in not destroying the houses and innocent Genoese in- 
habitants. In the communications which followed under a 
flag of truce. Nelson was informed, verbally, that all the ports 
of the Republic were closed against Great Britain. This 
stand, and the firing on the ship, being considered acts of 
hostility, the little island of Capraia, between Corsica and 
Genoa, and belonging to the latter, was seized by Nelson, act- 
ing under the counsel of the Viceroy of Corsica. This was 
done both as a retaliatory measure, and to put a stop to the 
use which French privateers and parties of Corsicans had 
hitherto made of it, under cover of Genoese neutrality. 

As Jervis was already under apprehension of an outbreak 
of scurvy in the fleet, consequent upon the faikire of supplies 
of live cattle following the French occupation of Leghorn, the 
closure of the Genoese ports was a severe blow. It was, how- 
ever, but one among several incidents, occurring nearly simul- 
taneously, which increased his embarrassments, and indicated 
the close approach of the long-muttering storm. To use his 
own words, '' The lowering aspect of Spain, with the advanced 
state of the equipment of the French fleet in Toulon," impelled 
him to concentrate his force. Rear-Admiral Man, who had 
been blockading Cadiz since his detachment there by Hotham, 
in October, 1795, was ordered up to the main fleet. Swayed 
by fears very unlike to Nelson's proud confidence in his 
admiral and his service, he acted with such precipitation as 
to leave Gibraltar without filling with provisions, and arrived 
so destitute that Jervis had to send him back at once, with 
orders to replenish with stores and then to rejoin without 
delay. Under the influence of the panic which prevailed at 
Gibraltar, Man had also sent such advices to the coast of 
Portugal as caused the commander-in-chief to fear that ex- 
pected supplies might be arrested. " Oh, our convoy ! " cried 

14 



210 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



Nelson ; '^ Admiral Man, how could you quit Gibraltar ? " Yet, 
as he wrote to Jervis, he had expected some such step, from 
what he had already seen '' under his hand to you." 

Thus, for the time at least, there were lost to the British 
seven of the ships-of-the-line upon which Nelson had reckoned 
in his letter to the Duke of Clarence. It was possibly on this 
account that Jervis Avrote him to shift his commodore's pen- 
dant to a frigate, and send the " Captain " to the fleet. Nelson 
obeyed, of course, and at once ; but taking advantage of the 
fact that no captain had yet joined his ship, he thought it 
" advisable to go in her myself." In this he doubtless was 
influenced chiefly by his unwillingness to miss a battle, 
especially against such great numerical odds. " I take for 
granted," he admitted to the Viceroy, " that the admiral will 
send me back in a cutter, but I shall give him a good ordered 
seventy-four, and take my chance of helping to thrash Don 
Langara, than which few things, I assure you, would give me 
more real pleasure." The particular emergency seems, how- 
ever, soon to have passed ; for after two days with the fleet he 
returned off Leghorn in the " Captain," somewhat comforted as 
to the apprehensions of the British Cabinet. " Whatever fears 
we may have for Corsica, it is certain Government at home 
have none, by taking so very respectable a part of your force 
away." A regiment had been transferred to Gibraltar with 
Man's squadron, when the latter returned there. 

These rising hopes and stirring expectations of brilliant 
service were speedily dashed. On the 2oth of September 
Jervis received orders from the Admiralty to abandon Corsica, 
to retreat from the Mediterranean, and to proceed with the 
fleet to England. In pursuance of these instructions Nelson 
was directed to superintend the evacuation of Bastia, the 
" most secret " letter to that effect reaching him at that port 
on the 29th of September, — his birthday. The purpose of 
the ministry filled him with shame and indignation. Con- 
fronted abruptly with the course which four months before 
had seemed to him natural and proper, the shock brought out 
the fulness of the change through which he had passed mean- 
time. He has no illusions about Corsica. The inhabitants 
had disappointed all the expectations of the British, — " At 
a peace I should rejoice at having given up the island." 



-i 



CHANGES OF OPINION 211 

But the days passing over his head had brought wider and 
niaturer views of the general policy of Great Britain, as well 
as increasing faith in the powers of the fleet, vigorously used 
in aggressive warfare. " Whilst we can keep the combined 
fleet in the Mediterranean [by our own presence], so much the 
more advantageous to us ; and the moment we retire, the 
whole of Italy is given to the French. If the Dons detach 
their fleet out of the Mediterranean, we can do the same — 
however, that is distant. Be the successes of the Austrians 
on the other hand what they may, their whole supply of stores 
and provisions comes from Trieste, across the Adriatic to the 
Po, and when this is cut off [as by our uncovering the sea it 
must be], they must retire." Above all he grieves for Naples. 
If a weak and vacillating ally, there Avas no doubt her heart 
was with them. " I feel more than all for Naples. The King 
of Naples is a greater sacrifice than Corsica. If he has been 
induced to keep off the peace, and perhaps engaged in the war 
again by the expectation of the continuance of the fleet in the 
Mediterranean, hard indeed is his fate; his kingdom must 
inevitably be ruined." In the impression now made upon 
him, may perhaps be seen one cause of Nelson's somewhat 
extravagant affection in after days for the royal family of 
Naples, independent of any influence exerted upon him by 
Lady Hamilton. 

With these broad views of the general strategic situation, 
which are unquestionably far in advance of the comparatively 
narrow and vague conceptions of a year, or even six months 
before, and doubtless indicate the results of independent com- 
mand and responsibility, acting upon powers of a high order, 
he at the same time shows his keen appreciation of the value 
of the organized force, whose movements, properly handled, 
should dominate the other conditions. "When Man arrives, 
who is ordered to come up, we shall be twenty-two sail of such 
ships as England hardly ever produced, and commanded by an 
admiral who will not fail to look the enemy in the face, be 
their force what it may : I suppose it will not be more than 
thirty -four of the line. There is not a seaman in the fleet who 
does not feel confident of success." " The fleets of England," 
he says again, "are equal to meet the world in arms; and of 
all fleets I ever saw, I never beheld one in point of officers and 



212 THE LITE OF NELSON 

men equal to Sir John Jervis's, Avho is a commander-in-chief 
able to lead them to glory." 

Reasoning so clearly and accurately upon the importance to 
Great Britain's interests and honor, at that time, of maintain- 
ing her position in the Mediterranean, and upon the power of 
her fleet in battle, it is not strange that iSTelson, writing in 
intimate confidence to his wife, summed up in bitter words his 
feelings upon the occasion ; unconscious, apparently, of the 
great change they indicated, not merely in his opinions, but in 
his power of grasping, in well-ordered and rational sequence, 
the great outlines of the conditions amid which he, as an 
officer, was acting. " We are all preparing to leave the Medi- 
terranean, a measure which I cannot approve. They at home 
do not know what this fleet is capable of performing ; any- 
thing, and everything. Much as I shall rejoice to see Eng- 
land, I lament our present orders in sackcloth and ashes, so 
dishonourable to the dignity of England." To the British 
minister at Naples his words were even stronger: "Till this 
time it has been usual for the allies of England to fall from 
her, but till now she never was known to desert her friends 
whilst she had the power of supporting them. I yet hope the 
Cabinet may, on more information, change their opinion ; 
it is not all we gain elsewhere which can compensate for our 
loss of honour. The whole face of affairs is totally diiferent 
to what it was when the Cabinet formed their opinion." 

Nevertheless, although Nelson's perceptions and reasoning 
were accurate as far as they went, they erred in leaving out 
of the calculation a most important consideration, — the main- 
tenance of the communications with England, which had 
assumed vital importance since the general defection of the 
Italian States, caused by Bonaparte's successes and his im- 
j)erious demands. It would be more true to say that he 
underestimated this factor than that he overlooked it ; for he 
had himself observed, six weeks earlier, when the approach of 
a Spanish war first became certain: "I really think they 
would do us more damage by getting off Cape Einisterre ;^ it 
is there I fear them," and the reason for that fear is shown 

1 Ou the northwest coast of Spain, at the entrance of the Bay of Biscay, 
and therefore right in the track of vessels from the Channel to the Straits of 
Gibraltar. 



MILITARY OPINIONS 213 

by his reproach against Man, already quoted, for his neglect 
of the convoy. The position of the Spanish Navy in its 
home ports was in fact intermediate — interior — as regarded 
the British fleet and the source of its most essential supplies. 
So long as its future direction remained uncertain, it lay upon 
the flank of the principal British line of communications. 
Nelson did not use, perhaps did not know, the now familiar 
terms of the military art; and, with all his insight and com- 
prehensive sagacity, he suffered from the want of proper tools 
with which to transmute his acute intuitions into precise 
thought, as well as of clearly enunciated principles, which 
serve to guide a man's conclusions, and would assuredly have 
qualified his in the present instance. Upon the supposition 
that the Spanish Navy, practically in its entirety, entered 
the Mediterranean and appeared off Corsica, — as it did, — 
Nelson's reasoning was correct, and his chagrin at a retreat 
justified ; hut, as he himself had wisely remarked to Beaulieu, 
it is not safe to count upon your enemy pursuing the course 
you wish. Had the Spanish Government chosen the other 
alternative open to it, and struck at the communications, such 
a blow, or even such a threat, must have compelled the with- 
drawal of the fleet, unless some other base of supplies could 
be found. The straitness of the situation is shown by the fact 
that Jervis, after he had held on to the last moment in San 
Fiorenzo Bay, sailed for Gibraltar with such scanty provisions 
that the crews' daily rations were reduced to one-third the 
ordinary amount ; in fact, as early as the first of October 
they had been cut down to two-thirds. Whether, therefore, 
the Government was right in ordering the withdrawal, or 
Nelson in his condemnation of it, may be left to the decision 
of those fortunate persons who can be cock-sure of the true 
solution of other people's perplexities. 

In evacuating the Mediterranean, Jervis determined, upon 
his own responsibility, to retain Elba, if the troops, which 
were not under his command, would remain there. This was 
accordingly done ; a strong garrison, adequately provisioned, 
thus keeping for Great Britain a foothold within the sea, at a 
time when she had lost Minorca and did not yet possess 
Malta. Nelson hoped that this step would encourage the Two 
Sicilies to stand firm against the French ; but, however valu- 



h 



214 THE LIFP: OF NELSON 

able Elba would be to the fleet as a base, if lield until its 
return, it was useless to protect Naples in the absence of the 
fleet, and upon the news of the latter's proposed retirement 
that Kingdom at once made peace. 

After the receipt of his orders for the evacuation of Bastia, 
and pending tlie assembling of the transports, Nelson was 
despatched by the admiral to Genoa, to present reclamations 
for injuries alleged to have been done to Groat Britain, and to 
propose terms of accommodation. The little llepublic, how- 
ever, under the coercive influence of Bonaparte's continued 
success, was no longer in doubt as to the side Avhich policy- 
dictated her to take, between the two belligerents who vexed 
her borders. During this visit of Nelson's, on the 9th of 
October, she signed a treaty with France, stipulating, besides 
the closure of the ports against Great Britain, the payment of 
a sum of money, and free passage to troops and suj^plies for 
the army of Italy. Thus was Genoa converted formally, as 
she for some time had been actually, into a French base of 
operations. Returning from this fruitless mission. Nelson 
rejoined the commander-in-chief on the 13th of October, at 
San Fiorenzo, and the same afternoon left again for Bastia, 
where he arrived the following day. 

During the fortnight intervening since he left the place, the 
fact that the Spanish fleet was on its way to Corsica had be- 
come known, and the French partisans in the island were pro- 
portionately active. It was impossible for the British to go 
into the interior ; their friends, if not in a minority, were 
effectually awed by the preponderance of their enemies, on 
land and sea. Nelson, wishing to cross overland to San 
Fiorenzo to visit Jervis, was assured he could not do so with 
safety. In Bastia itself the municipality had wrested the 
authority from the Viceroy, and consigned the administration 
to a Committee of Thirty. The ships of war and transports 
being blown to sea, the inhabitants became still more aggres- 
sive ; for, foreseeing the return of the French, they were 
naturally eager to propitiate their future masters by a display 
of zeal. British property was sequestered, and shipping not 
permitted to leave the mole. 

Nelson was persuaded that only the arrival of the ships 
accompanying him saved the place. Except a guard at the 




ORDERED TO EVACUATE BASTIA 215 

Viceroy's house, the British troops had been withdrawn to the 
citadeh Even there, at the gates of the citadel, and within 
it, Corsican guards were present in numbers equal to the 
British, while the posts in the towns were all held by them. 
Arriving at early dawn of the 14th, ISTelson at once visited the 
general and the Viceroy. The former saw no hope, under the 
conditions, of saving either stores, cannon, or provisions. 
"The Army," said Nelson in a private letter to Jervis, with 
something of the prejudiced chaff of a seaman of that day, 
" is, as usual, well dressed and powdered. I hope the general 
will join me cordially, but, as you well know, great exertions 
belong exclusively to the ISTavy.'*' After the evacuation, how- 
ever, he admitted handsomely that it was impossible to "do 
justice to the good dispositions of the general." 

Between the heads of the two services such arrangements 
were perfected as enabled almost everything in the way of 
British property — public and private — to be brought away. 
By midday the ships, of which three were of the line, were 
anchored close to the mole-head, abreast the town, and the 
municipality was notified that any opposition to the removal 
of the vessels and stores would be followed by instant bom- 
bardment. Everything yielded to the threat, made by a man 
whose determined character left no doubt that it would be 
carried into execution. "Nothing shall be left undone that 
ought to be done," he wrote to Jervis, "even should it be 
necessary to knock down Bastia." From time to time inter- 
ference was attempted, but the demand for immediate desist- 
ence, made, watch in hand, by the naval officer on the spot, 
enforced submission. " The firm tone held by Commodore 
Nelson," wrote Jervis to the Admiralty, " soon reduced these 
gentlemen to order, and quiet submission to the embarkation." 
Owing to the anarchy prevailing, the Viceroy was persuaded 
to go on board before nightfall, he being too valuable as a 
hostage to be exposed to possible kidnappers. 

On the 18th of October a large number of armed French 
landed at Cape Corso, and approached the town. On the 19th 
they sent to the municipality a demand that the British should 
not be permitted to embark. Under these circumstances even 
Nelson felt that nothing more could be saved. The work of 
removal was continued actively until sunset, by which time 



216 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

two hundred thousand pounds worth of cannon, stores, and 
provisions had beeu taken on board. At midnight the troops 
evacuated the citadel, and marched to the north end of the 
town, where they embarked — twenty-four hours ahead of the 
time upon which Nelson had reckoned four days before. It 
was then blowing a strong gale of wind. Last of all, about 
six o'clock on the morning of the 20th, Nelson and the general 
entered a barge, every other man being by that time afloat, 
and were pulled off to the ships, taking with them two field- 
guns, until then kept ashore to repel a possible attack at the 
last moment. The French, who " were in one end of Bastia 
before we quitted the other," had occupied the citadel since 
one in the morning, and the Spanish fleet, of over twenty sail- 
of-the-line, which had already arrived, was even then off Cape 
Corso, about sixty miles distant ; but the little British squad- 
ron, sailing promptly with a fair wind, in a few hours reached 
Elba, where every vessel was safely at anchor before night. 
On the 24th Nelson joined the commander-in-chief in Martello 
Bay, the outer anchorage of San Fiorenzo. Everything was 
then afloat, and ready for a start as soon as the transports, 
still at Elba, should arrive. The evacuation of Corsica was 
complete, though the ships remained another week in its 
waters. 

The Spanish fleet continued cruising to the northward of 
the island, and was every day sighted by the British lookout 
frigates. Jervis held grimly on, expecting the appearance of 
the seven ships of Admiral Man, who had been ordered to re- 
join him. That officer, however, acting on his own responsi- 
bility, weakly buttressed by the opinion of a council of his 
captains, had returned to England contrary to his instructions. 
The commander-in-chief, ignorant of this step, was left in the 
sorely perplexing situation of having his fleet divided into 
two parts, each distinctl}^ inferior to the Spanish force alone, 
of twenty-six ships, not to speak of the French in Toulon. 
Under the conditions, the only thing that could be done was 
to await his subordinate, in the appointed spot, until the last 
moment. By the 2d of November further delay had become 
impossible, from the approaching failure of provisions. On 
that day, therefore, the fleet weighed, and after a tedious 
passage anchored on the first of December at Gibraltar. 



INCREASING REPUTATION 217 

There Nelson remained until tlie 10th of the month, when 
he temporarily quitted the "Captain," hoisted his broad pen- 
dant on board the frigate " Minerve," and, taking with him 
one frigate besides, returned into the Mediterranean upon a 
detached mission of importance. 

Nelson's last services in Corsica were associated with the 
momentary general collapse of the British operations and in- 
fluence in the Mediterranean ; and his final duty, by a curious 
coincidence, was to abandon the position which he more than 
any other man had been instrumental in securing. Yet, amid 
these discouraging circumstances, his renown had been steadily 
growing throughout the year 1796, Avhich may justly be looked 
upon as closing the first stage in the history of British Sea 
Power during the wars of the French Revolution, and as 
clearing the way for his own great career, which in the re- 
possession of the Mediterranean reached its highest plane, 
and there continued in unabated glory till the hour of his 
death. It was not merely the exceptional brilliancy of his 
deeds at Cape St. Vincent, now soon to follow, great and dis- 
tinguished as those were, which designated him to men in 
power as beyond dispute the coming chief of the British 
Navy; it was the long antecedent period of unswerving con- 
tinuance in strenuous action, allowing no flagging of earnest- 
ness for a moment to appear, no chance for service, however 
small or distant, to pass unimproved. It was the same unre- 
mitting pressing forward, which had brought him so vividly 
to the front in the abortive fleet actions of the previous year, 
— ■ an impulse born, partly, of native eagerness for fame, partly 
of zeal for the interests of his country and his profession. 
" Mine is all honour ; so much for the Navy ! " as he wrote, 
somewhat incoherently^, to his brother, alluding to a disap- 
pointment about prize money. 

Nelson himself had an abundant, but not an exaggerated, 
consciousness of this increase of reputation ; and he knew, 
too, that he was but reaping as he had diligently sowed. '^ If 
credit and honour in the service are desirable," he tells his 
brother, '' I have my full share. I have never lost an oppor- 
tunity of distinguishing myself, not only as a gallant man, 
but as having a head ; for, of the numerous plans I have laid, 
not one has failed." "You will be informed from my late 



218 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

letters," lie writes to his wife, " that Sir John Jervis has such 
an opinion of my conduct, that he is using every influence, 
both public and private, with Lord Spencer, for my continu- 
ance on tliis station ; and I am certain you must feel the 
superior pleasure of knowing, that my integrity and plainness 
of conduct are the cause of my being kept from you, to the 
I'eceiving me as a person whom no commander-in-chief would 
wish to keep under his flag. Sir John was a perfect stranger 
to me, therefore I feel the more flattered ; and when I reflect 
that I have had the unbounded confidence of three command- 
ers-in-chief, I cannot but feel a conscious pride, and that I 
possess abilities." "If my character is known," he writes to 
the Genoese Government, which knew it well, " it will be 
credited that this blockade [of Leghorn] will be attended to 
Avith a degree of rigour unexampled in the present war," " It 
has pleased God this war," he tells the Duke of Clarence, 
"not only to give me frequent opportunities of shoAving my- 
self an ofiicer worthy of trust, but also to prosper all my un- 
dertakings in the highest degree. I have had the extreme 
good fortune, not only to be noticed in my immediate line of 
duty, but also to obtain the repeated approbation of His 
Majesty's Ministers at Turin, Genoa, and Naples, as well as 
of the Viceroy of Corsica, for my conduct in the various 
opinions I have been called upon to give ; and my judgment 
being formed from common sense, I have never yet been 
mistaken." 

Already at times his consciousness of distinction among 
men betrays something of that childlike, delighted vanity, 
half unwitting, Avhieh was afterward forced into exuberant 
growth and distasteful prominence, by the tawdry flatteries of 
Lady Hamilton and the Court of Naples. Now, expressed to 
one who had a right to all his confidence and to share all his 
honors, it challenges rather the sympathy than the criticism 
of the reader. '' I will relate another anecdote, all vanity to 
myself, but you will partake of it : A person sent me a letter^ 
and directed as follows, ' Horatio Nelson, Genoa.' On being 
asked how he could direct in such a manner, his answer, in a 
large party, was, ' Sir, there is but one Horatio Nelson in the 
world.' I am known throughout Italy," he continues ; " not a 
Kingdom, or State, where my name Avill be forgotten. This 



INCREASING REPUTATION 219 

is my Gazette. Probably my services may be forgotten by 
the great, by the time I get home; but my miud will not for- 
get, nor cease to feel, a degree of consolation and of applause 
superior to undeserved rewards. Wherever there is anything 
to be done, there Providence is sure to direct my steps. Credit 
must be given me in spite of envy. Had all my actions been 
gazetted, not one fortnight would have passed during the 
whole war without a letter from me. Even the French re- 
spect me." After the conclusion of the campaign, when on 
the way to Gibraltar, he tells her again : '* Do not flatter your- 
self that I shall be rewarded ; I expect nothing, and therefore 
shall not be disappointed: the pleasure of my own mind will 
be my reward. I am more interested, and feel a greater satis- 
faction, in obtaining yours and my father's applause than that 
of all the world besides." The wholesome balance between 
self-respect and a laudable desire for the esteem of men was 
plainly unimpaired. 

Though devoid of conspicuous events, the year 1796, from 
the opening of the campaign, early in April, up to the evacua- 
tion of the Mediterranean, had been to Nelson one of constant 
and engrossing occupation. There is therefore little mention 
by him of his private affairs and feelings. In the home corre- 
spondence there is no diminution in the calm tenderness of 
affection always shown by him towards his wife and father, 
who continued to liv^e together ; rather, perhaps, the expres- 
sions to Mrs. Nelson are more demonstrative than before, pos- 
sibly because letters were less frequent. But there is nothing 
thrilling in the " assurance of my unabated and steady affec- 
tion, which, if possible, is increasing by that propriety of 
conduct which you pursue.'' He is clearly satisfied to remain 
away ; the path of honor has no rival in his heart ; there is no 
suggestion of an inward struggle between two masters, no 
feeling of aloneness, no petulant discontent with uneasy sur- 
roundings, or longing for the presence of an absent mistress. 
The quiet English home, the " little but neat cottage," attracts, 
indeed, with its sense of repose, — "I shall not be very sorry 
to see England again. I am grown old and battered to pieces, 
and require some repairs " — but the magnet fails to deflect 
the needle ; not even a perceptible vibration of the will is 
produced. 



220 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Yet, while thus engrossed in the war, eager for personal 
distinction and for the military honor of his country, he appar- 
ently sees in it little object beyond a mere struggle for superi- 
ority, and has no conception of the broader and deeper issues 
at stake, the recognition of which intensified and sustained 
the resolution of the peace-loving minister, who then directed 
the policy of Great Britain. Of this he himself gives the proof 
in a curious anecdote. An Algerine official visiting the " Cap- 
tain " ofE Leghorn, Nelson asked him why the Dey would not 
make peace with the Genoese and Neapolitans, for they would 
pay well for immunity, as the Americans at that period always 
did. His answer was : " If we make peace with every one, 
what is the Dey to do with his ships ? " " What a reason for 
carrying on a naval war ! " said Nelson, when writing the story 
to Jervis ; " but has our minister a better one for the present ? " 
Jervis, a traditional Whig, and opposed in Parliament to the 
war, probably sympathized with this view, and in any case the 
incident shows the close confidence existing between the two 
officers ; but it also indicates how narrowly Nelson's genius 
and unquestionable acuteness of intellect confined themselves, 
at that time, to the sphere in which he was visibly acting. In 
this he presents a marked contrast to Bonaparte, whose rest- 
less intelligence and impetuous imagination reached out in 
many directions, and surveyed from a lofty height the bearing 
of all things, far and near, upon the destinies of France. 




I 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Evacuation of Elba. — Night Combat with Two Spanish Frig- 
ates. — Battle of Cape St. Vincent. — Nelson Promoted to 
Kear- Admiral. — Services before Cadiz. 

December, 1796-June, 1797. Age, 38. 

''T'TTHElSr we quitted Toulon," wrote Nelson to his old 
VV captain, Locker, while on the passage to Gibraltar, 
" I remember we endeavoured to reconcile ourselves to 
Corsica ; now we are content with Elba — such things are." 
Even this small foothold was next to be resigned. Upon 
reaching Gibraltar, Jervis received orders from the Admiralty 
to evacuate the island. 

This was the duty upon which Nelson was so soon de- 
spatched again to the Mediterranean. Though "most im- 
portant,'' wrote he to his wife, " it is not a fighting mission, 
therefore be not uneasy." The assurance was doubtless 
honestly given, but scarcely to be implicitly accepted in view 
of his past career. Leaving the admiral on the evening of 
December 14, with the frigates "Blanche" and "Minerve," 
his commodore's pendant lying in the latter, the two vessels, 
about 11 p. M. of the 19th, encountered two Spanish frigates 
close to Cartagena. The enemies pairing off, a double action 
ensued, which, in the case of the " Minerve," ended in the 
surrender of her opponent, " La Sabina," at half-past one in 
the morning. Throwing a prize-crew on board, the British 
ship took her late antagonist in tow and stood away to the 
southeast. At half-past three another Spanish frigate came 
up, and, in order to meet this fresh enemy on fairly equal 
terms, the " Minerve " had to drop her prize. The second fight 
began at 4.30, and lasted half an hour, when the Spaniard 
hauled off. With daylight appeared also two hostile ships- 
of-the-line, which had been chasing towards the sound of the 
guns. These had already been seen by the " Blanche," which 



222 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

was by them prevented from taking possession of her antago- 
nist, after the latter struck. The pursuit lasted through the 
day, the " Minerve " being hard pressed in consequence of 
the injuries received by all her masts during the engagement ; 
but both British frigates succeeded in shaking off their pur- 
suers. " La Sabina " was recaptured ; she had already lost 
one mast, and the remaining two were seen to go over the side 
as she was bringing-to, when the enemy overtook her. It is 
interesting to note that her captain, Don Jacobo Stuart, was 
descended from the British royal house of Stuart. He, with 
many of his crew, had been transferred to the " Minerve," and 
remained prisoners. 

Kelson reached Porto Ferrajo a week later, on the 26th of 
December. ''On my arrival here," wrote he to his brother, 
" it was a ball night, and being attended by the captains, I 
was received in due form by the General, and one particular 
tune was played : ^ the second was ' Eule Britannia.' From 
Italy I am loaded with compliments." Having regard to com- 
parative strength, the action was in all respects most creditable, 
but it received additional lustre from being fought close to the 
enemy's coast, and in full view of a force so superior as that 
from which escape had been handsomely made, under condi- 
tions requiring both steadiness and skill. Though on a small 
scale, no such fair stand-up fight had been won in the Medi- 
terranean during the war, and the resultant exultation was 
heightened by its contrast with the general depression then 
weighing upon the British cause. Especially keen and warmly 
expressed was the satisfaction of the veteran commander-in- 
chief at Lisbon, who first learned the success of his valued 
subordinate through Spanish sources. " I cannot express to 
you, and Captain Cockburn, the feelings I underwent on the 
receipt of the enclosed bulletin, the truth of which I cannot 
doubt, as far as relates to your glorious achievement in the 
capture of the Sabina, and dignified retreat from tlie line-of- 
battle ship, which deprived you of your well-earned trophy ; 
your laurels were not then within their grasp, and can never 
fade." 

General De Burgh, who commanded the troops in Elba, had 

^ It is evident that this must have involved a compliment personal to 
Nelson. 



4 



MISSION TO EVACUATE ELBA 223 

received no instructions to quit the island, and felt uncertain 
about his course, in view of the navy's approaching departure. 
Nelson's orders were perfectly clear, but applied only to the 
naval establishment. He recognized the general's difficulty, 
though he seems to have thought that, under all the circum- 
stances, he might very well have acted upon his own expressed 
opinion, that " the signing of a Neapolitan peace with France 
ought to be our signal for departure." "The army," wrote 
Nelson to the First Lord of the Admiralty, " are not so often 
called upon to exercise their judgment in political measures 
as we are ; therefore the general feels a certain diffidence." 
He told De Burgh that, the King of Naples having made 
peace, Jervis considered his business with the courts of Italy 
as terminated; that the Admiralty's orders were to concen- 
trate the effort of the fleet upon preventing the allied fleets 
from quitting the Mediterranean, and upon the defence of 
Portugal, invaluable to the British as a base of naval opera- 
tions. For these reasons, even if he had to leave the land 
forces in Elba, he should have no hesitation in following his 
instructions, which were to withdraw all naval belongings. 
" I have sent to collect my squadron, and as soon as they 
arrive, I shall offer myself for embarking the troops, stores, 
&c. ; and should you decline quitting this post, I shall pro- 
ceed down the Mediterranean with such ships of war as are 
not absolutely wanted for keeping open the communication of 
Elba with the Continent." 

The necessary preparations went on apace. Vessels were 
sent out to summon the scattered cruisers to the port. A 
frigate was despatched to Naples to bring back Sir Gilbert 
Elliot, the late Viceroy of Corsica, who, since the abandon- 
ment of the latter island, had been on a diplomatic visit to 
Rome and Naples. It is to this incident that we owe the 
fullest account transmitted of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent ; 
the narrator, Colonel Drinkwater, being then a member of the 
Viceroy's suite, and attending him upon his return with Nel- 
son's squadron. The Spanish prisoners were sent to Cartagena 
in a cartel. Nelson restoring to the captain of the " Sabina " 
the sword which he had surrendered. "I felt this consonant 
to the dignity of my Country, and I always act as I feel right, 
without regard to custom." By the 16th of January all the 



224 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

naval establishment Avas embarked, ready for departure, 
though some of the ships of war had not yet returned, nor had 
the Viceroy arrived. The delay allowed the " Minerve " to 
be completely refitted, two of her masts and most of her rig- 
ging having to be renewed. 

When Elliot came, it was decided in a consultation between 
him, Nelson, and De Burgh, that the troops should remain. 
The transports had been completely victualled, and so pre- 
pared that every soldier could be embarked in three days. 
With them Avere left two frigates and a few smaller ships of 
war. On the 29th of January, Nelson sailed with the rest 
of his force and the convoy, divided into three sections, which 
proceeded for the Straits by different routes, to diminish the 
chances of total loss by capture. Nelson himself, with another 
frigate, the " Romulus," in company, intended to make a 
round of the enemy's ports, in order to bring the admiral the 
latest information of the number of ships in each, and their 
state of preparation. " I hope to arrive safe in Lisbon v/ith 
my charge," he wrote to his wife on the eve of sailing, " but 
in war much is left to Providence : however, as I have hitherto 
been most successful, confidence tells me I shall not fail : and 
as notliing will be left undone by me, should I not always 
succeed, my mind will not suffer ; nor will the world, I trust, 
be willing to attach blame, where my heart tells me none 
would be due." The habit of taking risks had wrought its 
beneficial influence upon mind and temper, when he thus 
calmly and simply reasoned from the experience of the past to 
the prospective fortnight, to be passed in sight of a hostile 
coast, and in waters where he could meet no. friendly sail. " It 
has ever pleased Almighty God to give his blessing to my en- 
deavours," was his New Year greeting to his father at this time. 

During this month in Elba a slight political reference shows 
how his views and purpose were changing with the rapidly 
shifting political scene. In this hour of deepening adversity 
he no longer looks for peace, nor seeks the reason for the 
current war, which a few months before he had failed to find. 
" As to peace, I do not expect it ; Lord Malmesbury will come 
back as he went. But the people of England will, I trust, be 
more vigorous for the prosecution of the war, which can alone 
insure an honourable peace." 



NAVAL EVACUATION OF ELBA ^25 

The " Minerve " and the "■ Eomulus " looked first into the 
old British anchorage in San Fiorenzo Bay, which was found 
deserted. Standing thence to Toulon, tliey remained forty- 
eight hours off that port, in which were to be seen no ships iu 
condition for sailing. From there they passed off Barcelona, 
showing French colors, but without succeeding in drawing out 
any vessel there lying. The wind not being fair for Minorca, 
where Nelson had purposed to reconnoitre Port Mahon, tho 
frigates next went to Cartagena, and ascertained that the great 
Spanish fleet was certainly not there. As Toulon also had 
been found empty, it seemed clear that it had gone to the 
westward, the more so as the most probable information indi- 
cated that the naval enterprises of the French and their allies 
at that time were to be outside of the Mediterranean. Nelson 
therefore pushed ahead, and on the 9fch of February the 
"■ Minerve " and " Eomulus " anchored in Gibraltar. All three 
divisions from Elba passed the Straits within the same forty- 
eight hours. 

The Spanish grand fleet had been seen from the Eock, four 
days before, standing to the westward into the Atlantic. Two 
ships-of-the-liue and a frigate had been detached from it, with 
supplies for the Spanish lines before Gibraltar, and had 
anchored at the head of the bay, where they still were when 
Nelson arrived. On board them had also been sent the two 
British lieutenants and the seamen, who became prisoners 
when the "Sabina" was recaptured. Their exchange was 
effected, for which alone Nelson was willing to wait. The 
fact that the Spanish fleet had gone towards Jervis's rendez- 
vous, and the continuance of easterly winds, which would 
tend to drive them still farther in the same direction, gave 
him uneasy premonitions of that coming battle which it would 
" break his heart " to miss. It was, besides, part of his in- 
grained military philosophy, never absent from his careful 
mind, that a fair wind may fall or shift. "The object of a 
sea-officer is to embrace the happy moment which now and 
then offers, — it may be to-day, it may be never." Eegretting 
at this moment the loss even of a tide, entailed by the engage- 
ments of the Viceroy, whom he had to carry to Jervis, and 
therefore could not leave, he wrote, " I fear a ivesterly wind." 
The Providence in which he so often expresses his reliance, 

15 



226 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

now as on many other occasions, did not forsake the favored 
son, who never by sluggishness or presumption lost his oppor- 
tunities. The wind held fair until the 13th of February, when 
Nelson rejoined the commander-in-chief. That night it shifted 
to the westward, and the following day was fought the Battle 
of Cape St. Vincent. 

Taken in its entirety, the episode of this nearly forgotten 
mission to Elba is singularly characteristic, not only of Xel- 
son's own qualities, but also of those concurrences which, 
whatever the origin attributed to them by this or that person, 
impress upon a man's career the stamp of '^ fortunate." An 
errand purely of evasion, not in itself of prime importance, 
but for an object essentially secondary, it results in a night 
combat of unusual brilliancy, which would probably not have 
been fought at all could the British have seen the overwhelm- 
ing force ready to descend upon conqueror and conquered 
alike. With every spar wounded, and a hostile fleet in sight, 
the "Minerve" nevertheless makes good her retreat. Soli- 
tary, in an enemy's sea, she roams it with premeditated 
deliberateness, escaping molestation, and, except in the first 
instance, even detection. She carries the fortunes of a Caesar 
yet unknown, who is ready to stake them at any moment for 
adequate cause; but everything works together, not merely 
for his preservation, but to bring him up just in time for the 
exceptional action, which showed there was more to him than 
even his untiring energy and fearlessness had so far demon- 
strated. As when, in later years, burning anxiety pressed 
him to hasten after Villeneuve, yet failed so to discompose 
him as to cause the neglect of any preparation essential to 
due provision for the abandoned Mediterranean ; so now, with 
every power at highest tension to rejoin the admiral, eager 
not to waste a moment, he mars his diligence by no precipi- 
tancy, he grudges no hour necessary to the rounded com- 
pletion of the present task, — to see, and know, and do, all 
that can be seen and done. He might almost have used 
again, literally, the expression before quoted : " I have not 
a thought on any subject separated from the immediate object 
of my command." 

Leaving the '•' Romulus " in Gibraltar, the " Minerve " sailed 
again on the 11th. The Spanish ships-of-the-line followed 



NARROW ESCAPE FROM CAPTURE 227 

her at once. The east wind blows in wild and irregular puffs 
upon the anchorages immediately under the lofty Rock, where 
the frigate lay. Parther up, where the Spaniards were, it 
crosses the low neck joining the peninsula to the mainland, 
and is there more equable and more constant. The " Minerve " 
was consequently at a disadvantage until she got fairly from 
under its lee, and the chase through the Straits became close 
enough to draw the idlers of the town and garrison in crowds 
to the hillsides. It soon became evident that the leading 
ship-of-the-line was gaining upon the frigate, and the latter 
cleared for action. Nelson had but a poor opinion of the 
Spanish navy of his day, and doubtless chose, before surren- 
dering, to take his chance of one of those risks which in war 
often give strange results. He said to Drinkwater that he 
thought an engagement probable, but added, " Before the Dons 
get hold of that bit of bunting I will have a struggle with them, 
and sooner than give up the frigate, I '11 run her ashore." 

About this time the officers' dinner was announced. Drink- 
water went below, and was just congratulating Lieutenant 
Hardy, Avho had been captured in the " Sabina," upon his ex- 
change, when the cry '* Man overboard ! " was heard. The party 
dispersed hurriedly, in sympathy with the impulse which in- 
variably causes a rush under such circumstances ; and Drink- 
water, running to the stern windows, saw a boat already 
lowering with Hardy in it, to recover the man, who, however, 
could not be found. The boat therefore, making signal to that 
effect, soon turned to pull to the shij). The situation was ex- 
tremely embarrassing, not to say critical ; on the one hand, 
the natural reluctance to abandon any one or anything to tlie 
enemy, on the other, the imminent risk of sacrificing the ship 
and all concerned by any delay, — for the leading Spaniard, by 
himself far superior in force, was nearly within gunshot. 
Temperament and habit decide, in questions where reason has 
little time and less certainty upon Avhich to act; by nature and 
experience Nelson Avas inclined to take risks. It was evident 
the boat could not overtake the frigate unless the latter's way 
was lessened, and each moment that passed made this step 
more perilous, as the pursuer was already overhauling the 
" Minerve." " By God, I '11 not lose Hardy ! " he exclaimed : 
"back the mizzeu-topsail." The ship's speed being thus 



228 THE LIFE OP NELSON 

checked, the boat came alongside, and the party scrambled oa 
board. Singularly enough, the enemy, disconcerted by Nelson's 
action, stopped also, to allow his consort to come up, — a 
measure wholly inexcusable, and only to be accounted for by 
that singular moral effect produced in many men by a sudden 
and unexpected occurrence. The daring deed had therefore 
the happiest results of a stratagem, and the frigate was 
troubled no further. 

Steering that night to the southward, to throw off her pur- 
suers, the " Minerve " found herself unexpectedly in the midst 
of a fleet, which, from the signals made, was evidently not 
that of Jervis, and therefore must be hostile. The hazy 
atmosphere veiled the British frigate from close observation, 
and, by conforming her movements to those of the strangers, 
she escaped suspicion. Nelson was uncertain whether it was 
the Spanish grand fleet, or, possibly, a detached body proceed- 
ing to the West Indies. He had heard a rumor of such an 
expedition, and the impression was probably confirmed by 
these ships being met when steering southerly from the 
Straits ; Cadiz, the known destination of the grand fleet, being 
north. As the British commercial interests in the Caribbean 
were of the first importance, and would be much endangered, 
he told Drinkwater, who lay awake in his cot, that, if he be- 
came convinced the ships in sight were bound there, he should 
give up the attempt to join the commander-in-chief, and should 
start at once for the Islands, to forewarn them of the approach- 
ing danger. The colonel was naturally startled at the prospect 
of an involuntary trip across the Atlantic, and represented 
the equally urgent necessity — as he thought — of Jervis and 
the British Cabinet getting the information, which Elliot was 
bringing, of the views and intentions of the Italian govern- 
ments. This Nelson admitted, but replied that he thought the 
other consideration greater, and that — the condition arising 
— he must do as he had said. The incident illustrates the 
activity of his mind, in comprehending instantly the singular 
opportunity thrust unexpectedly upon him, as well as the 
readiness to accept responsibility and to follow his own judg- 
ment, which he showed on so many other occasions, both before 
and after this. 

Later in the night the hostile ships went about, evidencing 



BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT 229 

thereby a desire to keep to windward, wliich pointed much 
more toward Cadiz than to any western destination. The 
" Minerve " imitated them, but altered her course so as to 
edge away gradually from her dangerous neighbors. Nelson, 
some time after, again entered the cabin, and told Drink- 
water and Elliot, the latter having also waked, that he had 
got clear of the enemy, but that at daylight the course 
would be altered so as to sight them once more, if tliey were 
really going west. Should it prove to be so, they must make 
up their minds to visit the West Indies. Nothing, however, 
being seen during the 12th, the commodore, satisfied at last 
that he had been in the midst of the grand fleet, hastened on, 
and towards noon of tlie 13th joined the admiral. Before do- 
ing so, some of the Spaniards were again sighted. They had 
been seen also by the regular British lookouts, one at least of 
which had kept touch with them through the preceding days 
of hazy weather. Nelson, after an interview with Jervis, 
went on board the " Captain," where his broad pendant was 
again hoisted at 6 p. m. 

At daybreak, the position of the two fleets was twenty-five 
miles west of Cape St. Vincent, a headland on the Portuguese 
coast, a hundred and fifty miles northwest of Cadiz. During 
the night the wind had shifted from the eastward to west by 
south, and, being now fair, the Spaniards were running for 
their port, heading about east-southeast; but they were in 
disorder, and were divided into two principal fragments, of 
which the headmost, and therefore leewardmost, numbered six 
ships. It was separated from the other division of twenty-one 
by a sj)ace of six or eight miles. In the whole force, of 
twenty-seven ships, there were seven of three decks, the least 
of which carried one hundred and twelve guns ; the remainder 
were principally seventy-fours, there being, however, one of 
eighty-four guns. Jervis's fleet consisted of fifteen ships-of- 
the-line, — two of one hundred guns, four of ninety-eight or 
ninety, eight seventy-fours, and one sixty-four. From the 
intelligence received the previous day of the enemy's proxim- 
ity, the admiral kept the command throughout the night in 
two columns, in close order, a formation suited by its com- 
pactness to a hazy night, and at the same time manageable in 
case of encountering an enemy suddenly. The course was 



230 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

south by west, almost perpendicular to that of the Spaniards. 
The two fleets were thus running, one from the westward, and 
the other from the northward, to a common crossing.^ 

At daylight the enemy's fleet was partly visible to the 
leading ships of the British columns. As the morning ad- 
vanced, and the situation developed, it was seen that the 
Spanish line was long and straggling, and the gap began to 
show. As the British were heading directly towards it, 
Jervis ordered a half-dozen of his ships, which were all still 
under moderate canvas, to press on and interpose between 
the enemy's divisions. An hour or so later he made the 
signal to form the single column, which was the usual fight- 
ing order of those days. The fleet being already properly 
disposed for manoeuvres, this change of order was effected, 
to use his own words, "with the utmost celerity." ]!felson's 
ship was thirteenth in the new order, therefore nearly the 
last. Next after him came the sixty-four, the " Diadem," 
while Collingwood, in the " Excellent," brought up the rear. 
Immediately ahead of Nelson was the "Barfleur," carrying 
the flag of one of the junior admirals, to whom naturally fell 
the command in that part of the line. 

Three of the larger Spanish body succeeded in crossing 
ahead of the British column and joining the lee group, thus 
raised to nine ships. No others were able to effect this, the 
headmost British ships anticipating them in the gap. Jer- 
vis's plan was to pass between their two divisions with his 
one column, protracting this separation, then to go about in 
succession and attack the eighteen to windward, because their 
comrades to leeward could not help them in any short time. 
This was done. The lee ships did attempt to join those to 
windward by breaking through the British order, but were 
so roughly handled that they gave it np and continued to 
the south-southwest, hoping to gain a better opportunity. 
The weather ships, on the other hand, finding they could not 
pass, steered to the northward, — nearly parallel, but oppo- 
site, to the course which both the British and their own lee 
group were then following. 

A heavy cannonade now ensued, each British ship engag- 
ing as its batteries came to bear, through the advance of the 
1 See Plate, Figure 1. 



BATTLE OF CAPE 5T VINCENT 

FEBRUARY 14,1797. 

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BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT 231 

column to tlie south-southwest. After an hour of this, the 
admiral made the signal to tack in succession. This was 
instantly obeyed by the leader, the " Culloden," which was 
expecting it, and each following ship tacked also as it reached 
tlie same point. But as the Spaniards were continually re- 
ceding from this point, which the British rear was approach- 
ing, it was evident that in time the latter would leave 
uncovered the grouud that had so far separated the two 
hostile divisions. This the Spanish admiral expected to be 
his opportunity ; it proved to be Nelson's. 

At 1 p. M.,^ by Nelson's journal, the "Captain," standing 
south by west, had come abreast the rearmost of the eigh- 
teen weather ships, having passed the others. He then 
noticed that the leaders of that body were bearing up be- 
fore the wind, to the eastward, to cross behind the British 
column. If this were carried out unmolested, they could 
join the lee ships, which heretofore had been separated from 
them by the centre and rear of the British line, and at this 
moment were not very far distant, being still engaged with 
the British centre; or else, so Nelson thought, they might 
fly before the wind, making ineffective all that had been 
done so far. "To prevent either of their schemes from tak- 
ing effect, I ordered the ship to be wore, and passing between 
the Diadem and Excellent, at a quarter past one o'clock, was 
engaged with the headmost, and of course leewardmost of 
the Spanish division. The ships which I know were, the 
Santissima Trinidad, 126 ; San Josef, 112 ; ^ Salvador del 
Mundo, 112 ; "- San Nicolas, 80 ; ^ another first-rate, and 
seventy-four, names not known. I was immediatel}'^ joined 
and most nobly supported by the Culloden, Captain Trou- 
bridge. The Spanish fleet,^ from not wishing (I suppose) to 
have a decisive battle, hauled to the wind [again] on the 
larboard tack, which brought the ships afore-mentioned to 
be the leewardmost and sternmost ships in their fleet." 

By this spontaneous and sudden act, for which he had no 
authority, by signal or otherwise, except his own judgment 
and quick perceptions, Nelson entirely defeated the Spanish 
movement. Devoting his own ship to a most unequal con- 

1 See Plate, Figure 2. 2 Captured. 

3 That is, the weather division, — the eighteen ships. 



232 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

test, he gained time for the approaching British van to come 
up, and carry on the work they had already begun when first 
passing these ships — before the moment of tacking. The 
British column being then in a V shape, — part on one tack, 
part on the other, the point of the V being that of tacking, — : 
he hastened across, by a short cut, from the rear of one arm 
of the V to a position on the other side, toward which the 
van was advancing, but which it, being more distant, could 
not reach as soon as he, and therefore not to as good effect. 
To quote Jervis's words concerning this incident, ''Commo- 
dore Nelson, who was in the rear on the starboard tack, took 
the lead on the larboard, and contributed very much to the 
fortune of the day." On the intellectual side, the side of 
skill, this is what he did ; on the side of valor, it is to be 
said that he did it for the moment single-handed. The " Cul- 
loden," the actual leader, came up shortly, followed afterwards 
by the " Blenheim ; " and the " Excellent " was ordered by 
Jervis to imitate Nelson's movement, and strengthen the 
operation which he had initiated. It was the concentration 
of these ships at the point which Nelson seized, and for a 
moment held alone, that decided the day ; and it was there 
that the fruits of victory were chiefly reaped. 

It must not be understood, of course, that all the honors 
of the day are to be claimed for Nelson, even conjointly with 
those present with him at the crucial moment. Much was 
done, both before and after, which contributed materially to 
the aggregate results, some of which were missed by the 
very reluctance of men of solid military qualities to desist 
from seeking enemies still valid, in order to enjoy what 
Nelson called the " parade of taking possession of beaten 
enemies." It seems probable that more Spanish ships might 
have been secured, had it not been for the eagerness of 
some British vessels to push on to new combats. But, 
while fully allowing the merits of many others, from the 
commander-in-chief down, it is true of St. Vincent, as of most 
battles, that there was a particular moment on which success 
or failure hinged, and that upon the action then taken de- 
pended the chief outcome, — a decisive moment, in short. 
That moment was when the enemy attempted, with good 
prospect, to effect the junction which Nelson foiled. As 



BATTLE OF CAPE STVINCENT 

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BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT 233 

Collingwood afterwards summed up the matter : " The high- 
est rewards are due to you and Culloden ; you formed the 
phiu of attack, — we were only accessories to the Dous' ruin ; 
for had they got on the other tack, they would have been 
sooner joined, and the business would have been less 
complete." 

AVhen Collingwood came up with the " Excellent," the 
" Captain " was practically disabled for further movement, 
had lost heavily in men, and was without immediate support. 
The " Culloden " had dropped astern, crippled, as had two of 
the Spanish vessels ; the " Blenheim," after passing the " Cul- 
loden " and the " Captain," between them and the enemy, had 
drawn ahead. The " Excellent," steering between the two 
Spanish ships that had fallen behind, fired into both of them, 
and Nelson thought both then struck ; but Collingwood did 
not stop to secure them. " Captain Collingwood," says Nel- 
son in his account, " disdaining the parade of taking posses- 
sion of beaten enemies, most gallantly pushed up, with every 
sail set, to save his old friend and messmate, who was to 
appearance in a critical state. The Excellent ranged up 
within ten feet of the San Nicolas, giving a most tremendous 
fire. The San Nicolas luffing up, the San Josef fell on board 
her, and the Excellent passing on for the Santissima Trinidad, 
the Captain resumed ^ her situation abreast of them, and close 
alongside. At this time the Captain having lost her foretop- 
mast, not a sail, shroud,^ or rope left, her wheel shot away, 
and incapable of further service in the line, or in chase, I 
directed Captain Miller to put the helm a-starboard, and call- 
ing for the boarders, ordered them to board." ^ 

The " Captain " fetched alongside of the " San Nicolas," her 
bow touching the lee (starboard) quarter of the Spanish ves- 
sel, her spritsail yard hooking in the other's mizzen shrouds. 
Commander Berry, a very young man, who had lately been 
first lieutenant of the "Captain," leaped actively into the 
mizzen chains, the first on board the enemy ; he was quickly 
supported by others, who passed over by the spritsail yard. 
The captain of the ship was in the act of following, at the 

1 That is, was left in. 

2 Shrouds are large lopes which support the masts. 

3 See Plate, Figure 3. 



234 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



head of lais men, when Nelson stopped liim. "No, Miller," 
he said, " / must have that honour ; " and he directed him to 
remain. One of the soldiers of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, who 
were serving on board as marines, broke open the upper 
quarter-gallery window of the "San Nicolas," and through 
this Nelson entered, with a crowd of followers, to find himself 
in the cabin of the enemy's ship. The doors being fastened, 
they were held there a few moments, while Spanish officers 
from the quarter-deck discharged their pistols at them ; but 
the doors were soon broken down, and the party, after firing a 
volley, sallied on the spar deck, which the enemy yielded to 
them, — a Spanish commodore falling by the wheel as he 
retreated. Berry had by this time reached the poop, where 
he hauled down the colors, while Nelson passed to the forward 
part of the ship, meeting on his way several Spanish ofiicers, 
who, being by this time in the hands of British seamen, gave 
up to him tbeir swords. The Spanish guns on the lower 
decks still continued firing for some moments, apparently at 
the " Prince George," which had passed to leeward of the 
" Captain," and now kept her batteries playing upon the hull 
of the " San Nicolas " forward of the part where the " Cap- 
tain" touched her. 

At this moment a small-arm fire was opened from the stern 
galleries of the " San Josef " upon the British party in the 
" San Nicolas." Nelson caused the soldiers to reply to it, 
and ordered reinforcements sent to him from the " Captain." 
Parties were stationed at the hatchways of the " San Nicolas " 
to control the enemy and keep them below decks, and then the 
boarders charged again for the Spanish three-decker. Nelson 
was helped by Berry into her main chains ; but he had got no 
farther before a Spanish officer put his head over the rail and 
said they surrendered. " From this most welcome informa- 
tion," continues Nelson, in his narrative, "it was not long 
before I was on the quarter-deck, when the Spanish captain, 
with a bow, presented me his sword, and said the admiral was 
dying of his wounds below. I asked him, on his honour, if 
the ship were surrendered ? he declared she was ; on which I 
gave him my hand, and desired him to call to his officers and 
ship's company, and tell them of it — which he did ; and on 
the quarter-deck of a Spanish First-rate, extravagant as the 



BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT 235 

story may seem, did I receive the swords of vanquished Span- 
iards ; which, as I received, 1 gave to William Fearney, one of 
my bargemen, who put them with the greatest sangfroid under 
his arm. I was surrounded by Captain Berry, Lieutenant 
Pierson, 69tli Regiment, John Sykes, John Thomson, Francis 
Cook, all old Agameninons, and several other brave men, sea- 
men and soldiers : thus fell these ships." The firing from the 
lower deck of the " San Nicolas " was by this time stopped, 
and the " Prince George " was hailed that both the enemy's 
vessels were in possession of the British. The " Victory," 
Jervis's flagship, passed a few moments later and cheered, as 
did every ship in the fleet. 

The dramatic and picturesque surroundings which colored 
the seizure of these two Spanish ships have doubtless given 
an exaggerated idea of the danger and difficulty attending 
the exploit. The impression made upon a sympathetic and 
enthusiastic eye-witness. Sir Gilbert Elliot, who saw the 
affair from the decks of the frigate " Lively," has been trans- 
mitted to posterity with little diminution. " Xothing in the 
world was ever more noble than the transaction of the Captain 
from beginning to end, and the glorious group of your ship 
and her two prizes, fast in your gripe, was never surpassed, 
and I dare say never will." Yet it may better be looked upon 
as another of those " fortunate " occurrences which attend — 
and in Nelson's career repeatedly attended — the happy meet- 
ing of opportunity and readiness. Doubtless they were beaten 
ships, but other beaten ships have escaped in general actions 
— did at St. Vincent. ''I pretend not to say," wrote iSTelson 
a week later, " that these ships might not have fell, had I not 
boarded them ; but truly it was far from impossible but they 
might have forged into the Spanish fleet as the other two 
ships did." He was there, he could do nothing else, he saw 
with his rapid glance that he might do this, and he did it. 
And, after all, it was a big thing, — this boarding a first-rate 
ship over the decks of another hostile ship, not inaptly char- 
acterized in the fleet as " Nelson's patent bridge." We must 
mark, too, or we shall miss significant indications of character, 
that the same qualities which led him to the quarter-deck of 
the " San Josef " had led him but an hour before from the 
rear of the fleet to the van to save the fight, — the same 



236 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

quickness to see opportunity, the same promptness to seize it, 
the same audacity to control it. The brilliant crowning of 
the day may be but an ornament, but it sits well and fitly 
upon the knightly deed that rolled back the tide of battle in 
the hour of need. 

Those Spanish ships of the weather division which were 
first encountered by Nelson, after he wore out of the line, bore 
the brunt of tlie fighting. As the whole division continued to 
stand on close to the wind, these ships, becoming crippled, 
dropped astern of their consorts, and so first received the 
broadsides of the British van as that arrived. Being also the 
leaders in the movement frustrated by Nelson, they became 
the most leewardly ; and, as the British van on coming up 
passed to leeward, this contributed further to concentrate fire 
upon the sa.me vessels. Among them was the " Santisima 
Trinidad," of four decks and one hundred and thirty guns, 
then the largest ship of war in tlie world. When Collingwood 
passed ahead of Nelson, he engaged her, but not as near as he 
wished, and could have done, had not the '' Excellent's " 
rigging been so cut as to prevent her hauling close to the 
wind. She was also brought to action by Sir James Saumarez, 
in the " Orion," and towards the close of her contest with the 
latter ship showed a British Union Jack, — -a token of sub- 
mission possibly unauthorized, as it was almost immediately 
hauled in again. Besides those boarded by Nelson, two other 
enemy's ships had already struck. 

It was now after four o'clock, and the other Spanish divi- 
sion, of eight ships, was heading for the scene and near at 
hand. Although effectually blocked in their first attempt to 
pierce the British line, these had not received such injury as 
to detract seriously from their efficiency. Continuing to stand 
south-southwest, after the British began tacking, they at last 
gained ground sufficiently to come up to windward, the side 
on which their other division Avas. In view of the now in- 
evitable junction of a great number of comparatively fresh 
ships, and of the casualties in his own vessels, Jervis decided 
to discontinue the action. He ordered his fleet to form on the 
starboard tack, covering the four prizes and the "Captain;" 
and with this done the firing soon ceased. The Spanish divi- 
sions united, and carried off their other disabled ships. 



BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT 237 

jSTelsou's account of the proceedings of the " Captain " ou 
the 14tli of February, having been published not long after- 
wards, apparently by his authority, was challenged as in- 
correct by Vice-Admiral William Parker, commanding the van, 
whose flag was on board the third British ship, the " Prince 
George.'" Parker claimed that the latter, with the "Blen- 
heim " and " Orion," had been much closer to the " Captain " 
and "Culloden" than was implied in Nelson's narrative by 
the words, "For near an hour, I believe, (but do not pretend 
to be correct as to time,) did the Culloden and Captain sup- 
port this apparently, but not really, unequal contest ; when 
the Blenheim, passing between us and the enemy, gave us a 
respite." Parker labored under the misfortune of a singularly 
involved and obscure style, while in two separate papers he 
contradicted himself more than once on points of detail ; but 
the tone of his letter to Nelson was temperate and dignified, 
and he asserted that, "so different to your statement, very 
soon after you commenced your fire, you had four ships press- 
ing on [Culloden, Blenheim, Prince George, and Orion], 
almost on board of each other, close in your rear; but" — and 
the admission following must be noted as well as the charge 
— " the ships thus pressing upon each other, and the ttvo latter 
not far enough ahead to fire with projoer effect^ besides having 
none of the enemy's ships left in the rear for our succeeding 
ships, at forty-three ^ minutes past one I made the signal to 
fill and stand on." Parker had also stated, in his log of the 
action, that the brunt fell upon the " Captain," the " Cul- 
loden," and the "Blenheim," but more particularly the two 
former, "from their being more in the van." 

It appears to the writer pi-obable that Nelson overestimated 
the period that he and Troubridge remained unsupported ; 
time would seem long to the bi'avest man, when opposed to 
such heavy odds. Parker seems to have reckoned it to be 
about fifteen minutes, and he admits that it was impossible 
for him to open fire with proper effect for some time, although 
close on the heels of the "Captain" and the "Culloden," be- 
cause he could not get abreast of the enemy. All the ships — 

1 The italics are the author's. 

2 In his letter to Nelson this is thirteen, but evidentlj' a slip. His log of 
the action says forty-three. 



238 THE LITE OF NELSON 

Spanish and British — were moving ahead, probably at not 
very different rates of speed. The " Prince George " certainly 
became in the end actively and closely engaged, much of the 
time with the " San Josef," a ship of force superior to her 
own. 

Nelson's account is a simple, if somewhat exultant, nar- 
rative of the facts as they passed under his observation ; and, 
except in the statement to which Parker objected, they do not 
even inferentially carry an imputation upon any one else. 
There was a reflection, though scarcely intended, upon the 
van ships, which should have been, and Parker says were, 
close behind the *' Culloden ; " but the attack was upon the 
extreme rear of the enemy, and Nelson probably forgot that 
readers might not understand, as he did, that the ships behind 
him must need some time to get up, and that his own posi- 
tion, abreast the enemy's rear, was in itself an obstacle to 
their reaching a place whence their batteries could bear, with 
the limited train of broadside guns in those days. 

Another and interesting illustration of the injustice a man 
may thus unintentionally do, through inadvertence, is afforded 
by Nelson's accounts of St. Vincent. There were two drawn 
up on board the '* Captain," — one by himself in his own 
hand; the second simply signed by him, Miller, and Berry. 
It is quite evident that the latter is based upon the former, 
much of the phraseology being identical ; but the whole is 
toned down in many points. The instance of unintentional 
injustice is this. In his autograph account. Nelson, thinking 
only of himself,^ speaks of his going with the boarders, and 
makes no mention of the captain of the ship, Miller, whose 
proper business it would be rather than his. In the revision. 
Miller would naturally feel that his failure to board should 
be accounted for, and it contains accordingly the statement, 
" Captain Miller was in the very act of going also, but I 
directed him to remain." Berry's hand also appears; for 
whereas Nelson's own account of boarding the " San Josef " 
simply says, " I got into her main-chains," the published 

1 Botli papers are headed : " A few remarks relative to m}'self in the Cap- 
tain," etc. It is nnfortunate that Nicolas, in giving these two papers, puts 
first the one which, from internal indications, is (in the author's judgment) 
the later in date. 



CONTROVERSY WITH ADMIRAL PARKER 239 

copy reads, " Captain Berry assisting me into the main- 
chains." 

So too with reference to Parker's controversy. In the first 
draft there occurs the unqualified statement: "For an hour 
the Culloden and Captain supported this apparently unequal 
contest." The revision reads : " For near an hour, I believe, 
{Jmt do not pretend to be correct as to time,y did Culloden and 
Captain," etc. Parker quotes from the revision, which was 
therefore the one published, but does not quote the words 
italicized. Probably, if the " Blenheim " and the " St. 
George " had had a hand in this revision, there would have 
been more modification ; but Nelson did not realize where he 
was hurting them, any more than he did in Miller's case. 

The love of glory, the ardent desire for honorable dis- 
tinction by honorable deeds, is among the most potent and 
elevating of military motives, which in no breast has burned 
with a purer flame than in that of jSTelson ; but it is better 
that officers leave the public telling of their own exploits to 
others, and it is evident that [Nelson, when taken to task, 
realized uncomfortably that he had not exercised diie thought- 
fulness. Parker refrained from addressing him till he had 
received the printed account. This was not till July, and his 
remonstrance reached Xelson shortly after the loss of his arm 
at Teneriffe, when on his way home for what proved to be a 
tedious and painful recovery. He was then suffering, not 
only from pain and weakness, but also from discouragement 
about his professional future, which he thought threatened by 
disability, and for these conditions allowance must be made ; 
but for all this his reply did not compare favorably with 
Parker's letter, which had been explicit in its complaint as 
well as moderate in expression. He wrote curtly : " I must 
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th of July ; 
and, after declaring that I know nothing of the Prince George 
till she was hailed from the forecastle of the San Nicolas,^ it 
is impossible I can enter into the subject of your letter." 

This course was the more ungenerous, because no explana- 
tion, or even admission of involuntary wrong done, could have 
detracted in the least from the abounding credit due and ac- 

1 Author's italics. 

2 Hailed to stop fii'iug, because the " San Nicolas" had surrendered. 



240 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

corded to Nelson for his conduct at St. Vincent, which indeed 
did not depend upon the length of time he remained unsup- 
ported, but upon the rapidity and fearlessness with which he 
had acted aright at a very critical juncture. This had been 
done so openly, under the eyes of all men, that it could by no 
means be hid. Collingwood had borne witness to it, in words 
which have- been quoted. Drinkwater and Elliot had watched 
the whole from the deck of their frigate. The latter had 
written to him : "To have had any share in yesterday's glory 
is honour enough for one man's life, but to have been fore- 
most on such a day could fall to your share alone." The 
commander-in-chief had come out to greet him upon the 
quarter-deck of the flagship, — a compliment naval ofiicers 
can appreciate, — had there embraced him, saying he could 
not sufficiently thank him, and " used every kind expression 
which could not fail to make me happy." Jervis had also 
insisted upon his keeping the sword of the Spanish rear- 
admiral who fell on board the "San Josef." 

Before dropping this subject, which has the unpleasantness 
that attends all contentions between individuals about their 
personal deserts, it is right to say that Nelson had held from 
the first that Collingwood, Troubridge, and himself were 
the only ones "who made great exertions on that glorious 
day : the others did their duty, and some not exactly to my 
satisfaction." " Sir John Jervis," he continued, " is not 
quite contented, but says nothing publicly." He then quotes 
an anecdote which, if he had it from Jervis, confirms his own 
opinion about the support given. "Calder [the Chief of 
Staff] said, ' Sir, the Captain and Culloden are separated from 
the fleet, and unsupported : shall we recall them ? ' 'I will 
not have them recalled. I put my faith in those ships : it is a 
disgrace that they are not supported and [are] separated.' " 

In his public letter Jervis refrained alike from praise and 
from blame. He mentions but one name, that of Calder, as 
bearer of despatches, and only incidentally says that he has 
been useful to him at all times. In a private letter to the 
First Lord he was more explicit, yet scarcely adequately so. 
Whatever momentary expression of impatience escaped him, 
when anxious about the "Culloden" and "Captain," he knew 
that his own flagship could not get to them in time for effi- 



AN INTERESTING ANECDOTE 241 

cient support, and he gives as the reason for reticence in his 
public letter that all had behaved well, and that he was " con- 
fident that had those who were least in action been in the 
situation of the fortunate few, their conduct would not have 
been less meritorious." He then mentions by name Trou- 
bridge, — who led the fleet, — Nelson, and Collingwood, and 
five ships (without the names of the captains, " Blenheim," 
" Prince George," " Orion," " Irresistible," and " Colossus," 
which "gallantly supported" Troubridge, though just where 
or when is not specified. " The ships' returns of killed and 
wounded," he says explicitly, "although not always the 
criterion of their being more or less in action, is, in this in- 
stance, correctly so." This would include the "Blenheim," 
whose casualties were in excess of any except the " Captain," 
and Parker's ship, the " Prince George," which lost not many 
less than Collingwood. The " Captain's " loss in killed, 
twenty-four, was double that of any other ship, and in killed 
and wounded nearly one-third that of the whole fleet. 

An interesting anecdote of Jervis shows the importance 
conceded by him to Nelson's action. It rests on good author- 
ity, and is eminently characteristic of one who valued beyond 
most traits in an officer the power to assume responsibility. 
" The test of a man's courage," he used to say, " is responsi- 
bility." In the evening, while talking over the events of the 
day, Calder spoke of Nelson's wearing out of the line as an 
unauthorized departure from the method of attack prescribed 
by the admiral. " It certainly was so," replied Jervis, " and 
if ever you commit such a breach of your orders, I will for- 
give you also." Success covers many faults, yet it is difficult, 
to believe that had Nelson been overwhelmed, the soundness, 
of his judgment and his resolution would not equally have 
had the applause of a man, who had just fought twenty-seven 
ships with fifteen, because "a victory was essential to Eng- 
land at that moment." The justification of departure from 
orders lies not in success, but in the conditions of the case ; 
and Jervis was not one to overlook these, nor hereafter to 
forget that only one man in his fleet had both seen the thing 
to do and dared the responsibility of doing it. 

A victory so signal entailed, as a matter of course, a number 
of those rewards and titles with which Great Britain judiciously 

16 



242 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

fostered the spirit of emulation in her Navy. These were to 
a considerable extent aifairs of routine and precedent, and Nel- 
son, knowing that junior flag-officers had on several previous 
occasions been made baronets, wished to avoid this hereditary 
dignity because inconsistent with his uieans. His love of 
distinction also prompted him to desire one of those Orders 
which carry with them the outward token of merit. Meeting 
Drinkwater the day after the battle, he expressed his reluc- 
tance to the baronetage, and upon the other's asking him 
whether he would prefer to be a Knight of the Bath, he re- 
plied, "Yes ; if my services have been of any value, let them 
be noticed in a Avay that the public may know them." To 
Elliot, who was about to return at once to England, he wrote, 
asking him to make known his wishes to the Admiralty. "If 
you can be instrumental in keeping back what I expect will 
happen, it will be an additional obligation. I conceive to 
take hereditary honours without a fortune to support the 
dignity, is to lower that honour it would be my pride to sup- 
port in proper splendour. There are other honours which die 
with the possessor, and I should be proud to accept, if my 
efforts are thought worthy of the favour of my King." 

Elliot started for England a fcAv days afterwards, and 
reached London at a time when the whole country was ring- 
ing with the news of the victory. Arriving at such a propi- 
tious moment, there could have been for Nelson no better 
advocate than this man, placed high in political councils, and 
having to give to the Ministry a long account of his career in 
the Mediterranean, throughout the whole of which the two 
had been in intimate contact and constant correspondence. 
Himself an eye-witness, and filled with enthusiasm for Nelson's 
latest exploit, Elliot knew better than any one that it was no 
sporadic outburst, but only a signal manifestation of the 
intuitive sagacity, the flashing promptness, and the sustained 
energy, whose steady fires he had known to burn, without 
slackening of force or change of motive, through two years of 
close personal association in public action to a common end. 
The government thus learned more of him than can easily 
transpire under ordinary service conditions, or be shown even 
by an incident like that at St. Vincent ; and Elliot's admira- 
tion, free from all bias of professional partiality or profes- 



i 



MADE A KNIGHT OF THE BATH 243 

sional jealousy, doubtless was more useful to Nelson than 
any narrative of his own could have been. Even the royal 
favor was conciliated, despite the obstinate temper which 
jdelded prejudices with difficulty. "I must rejoice," wrote 
Nelson to the Duke of Clarence, who had mentioned to him 
the King's approval, "in having gained the good opinion of 
my Sovereign, which I once was given to understand I had no 
likelihood of enjoying." ^ It was to the honor of the monarch 
that he was thus as pliant to admit merit in an officer as yet 
only rising to distinction, as he was firm at a later day to 
stamp with the marks of his displeasure the flagrant moral 
aberration of the then world-renowned admiral. 

The coveted Knighthood of the Bath was accorded on the 
17th of March, " in order," wrote the First Lord, " to mark 
the Royal approbation of your successful and gallant exer- 
tions on several occasions during the course of the present 
war in the Mediterranean, and moi;e particularly of your very 
distinguished conduct in the glorious and brilliant victory 
obtained over the fleet of Spain by His Majesty's fleet, on the 
14th of February last." Nelson's delight was great and char- 
acteristic. Material rewards were not in his eyes the most 
real or the richest. " Chains and Medals," he wrote to his 
brother, "are what no fortune or connexion in England can 
obtain ; and I shall feel prouder of those than all the titles in 
the King's power to bestow." To his wife he said : " Though 
we can afford no more than a cottage — yet, with a contented 
mind, my chains, medals, and ribbons are all sufficient." To 
receive honor was second to no possession, except that of 
knowing he had deserved it. 

On the evening of the Battle of St. Vincent, soon after the 
firing ceased. Nelson shifted his commodore's pendant to the 
" Irresistible," of seventy-four guns, the " Captain " being 
unmanageable from the damage done to her spars and rigging. 
Her hull also had been so battered, that he wrote a few days 
later she would never be able to receive him again, which 
proved to be true ; for although, after she had been patched 
up, he returned to her temporarily, a newly fitted ship, the 
"Theseus," seventy-four, was assigned to his flag, as soon as 
a reinforcement arrived from England. 
1 See ante, page 89. 



244 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

After a vain effort to reach the Tagus against contrary- 
winds, with disabled ships, Jervis decided to take his fleet 
into Lagos Bay, an open roadstead on the southern coast of 
Portugal, and there to refit sufficiently to make the passage 
to Lisbon. While lying at Lagos Nelson became a Rear- 
Admiral of the Blue, by a flag-promotion dated on the 20th 
of February, although his flag was not hoisted until the first 
of April, when the official notification of his advancement was 
received by him. He was then thirty -eight and a half years 
of age. In this rank he remained until after the Battle of the 
Nile was fought, but it mattered comparatively little where 
he stood on the list of flag-officers, while Jervis commanded ; 
that he was an admiral at all made it possible to commit to 
him undertakings for which he was pre-eminently qualified, 
but which could scarcely have been intrusted to a simple 
captain by any stretching of service methods, always — and 
not improperly — conservative. 

On the 23d of February the fleet sailed again, and on the 
28th anchored in the Tagus. The same day Nelson wrote to 
his wife that he was to go to sea on the 2d of March, with 
three ships-of-the-line, to look out for the Viceroy of Mexico, 
who was reported to be on his way to Cadiz, also with three 
ships-of-the-line, laden with treasure. " Two are first-rates," 
said he, "■ but the larger the ships the better the mark, and 
who will not fight for dollars?" Foul winds prevented his 
getting away until the 5th. From that date until the 12th of 
April he remained cruising between Cape St. Vincent and the 
coast of Africa, covering the approaches to Cadiz; frigates 
and smaller vessels being spread out to the westward, to gain 
timely notice of the approach of the specie ships, upon whose 
safe arrival Spain depended both for her commercial affairs 
and her naval preparations. 

But while thus actively employed, and not insensible to the 
charm of dollars, the immediate business on board was not in 
itself so engrossing, nor to him so attractive, as to obtain that 
exclusiveness of attention which he prided himself upon giving 
to matters more military in character, and more critical in 
importance. "The Spaniards threaten us they will come out, 
and take their revenge," he writes to an occasional corre- 
spondent. " The sooner the better ; but I will not believe it 



ANXIETY ABOUT THE ELBA GARRISON 245 

till I see it ; and if they do, what will the mines of Mexico 
and Peru signify, compared with the honour I doubt not we 
shall gain by fighting an angry Don ? They will have thirty 
sail of the line, Ave twenty or twenty-two ; but fear we shall 
have a peace before they are ready to come out. AVhat 
a sad thing that will be ! " His mind reverts to the troops 
in Elba, which had been left in a most exposed position, and 
were now about to Avithdraw under the protection of some 
frigates, passing through a thousand miles of hostile sea open 
to the line-of-battle ships at Toulon. He is more concerned 
about them than about his possible prize-money in the rich 
ships from Vera Cruz and Havana, whose danger from his own 
squadron was agitating all Spain. " Respecting myself," he 
writes to Jervis, "I wish to stay at sea, and I beg, if line-of- 
battle ships are left out,^ either on this side the Gut, or to the 
eastward of Gibraltar, that I may be the man. This brings 
forward a subject which I own is uppermost in my mind, — 
that of the safety of our troops, should they embark from Elba. 
The French have a number of ships at Toulon. They may 
get two, three, or four ready, Avith a number of frigates, and 
make a push for our convoy. I am ready, you know, to go 
eastAvard to cover them, eA^en to Porto Ferrajo, or off Toulon, 
or INIinorca, as you may judge proper." 

This exposed detachment continued to occupy his thoughts. 
A month later, on the 11th of April, he again writes : " I own, 
Sir, my feelings are alive for the safety of our army from 
Elba. If the French get out tAvo sail of the line, Avhich I am 
confident they rnay do, our troops are lost, and what a triumph 
that Avould be to them ! I knoAv you have many difficulties to 
contend with, but I am anxious that nothing should miscarry 
under your orders. If you think a detachment can be spared, 
I am ready to go and do my best for their protection." In 
both letters he apologizes for this freedom of urgency with 
his superior : " I have said much, but you have spoiled me by 
allowing me to speak and Avrite freely. I trust you will not 
imagine that my taking the great liberty of thus mentioning 
my thoughts, arises from any other motive than affection 
tOAvards you." 

Jervis had already joined him on the 1st of April, before 
1 That is, at sea, the main fleet being still in the Tagus. 



246 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the second letter was written. His hesitation about sending 
the detachment suggested by Nelson had arisen, not from 
doubt as to the danger of the troops, but from the imminent 
expectation of the Spanish fleet coming out. The British 
force was already too inferior, numericall}'-, to risk any dimi- 
nution, in view of such a contingency. Confronted with 
divergent objects, Jervis would not be drawn into the snare 
of dividing his force ; but after reconnoitring the port, he 
was satisfied that the Spaniards could not sail before Nelson 
had time to fulfil the proposed mission, and on the 12th of 
April he gave him the necessary orders. The latter trans- 
ferred his own squadron to the command of Sir James 
Saumarez, and started at once. He had now returned to 
the " Captain," which had doubtless come down with Jervis. 
" She is little better than a wreck," he wrote to a friend ; 
but the cripples had to be kept to the front, pending the 
arrival of fresh ships. Besides her, he had the " Colossus," 
seventy -four, and "Leander," fifty, with a suitable number 
of smaller cruisers. Passing within gunshot of Port Mahon 
in Minorca, he heard from several passing vessels that a 
French squadron of four ships-of-the-line was at sea, as he 
had anticipated ; and these, he afterwards learned, were seen 
off Minorca only twenty-two hours before he passed. Fortu- 
nately a fresh northwest gale had carried them to the south- 
ward, and on the 21st of April, sixty miles west of Corsica, 
he joined the convoy, which carried over three thousand 
soldiers. He reached Gibraltar with it in safety in the early 
days of May, without adventures of any kind. ''I observed a 
man-of-war brig evidently looking at us ; but my charge was 
too important to separate one ship in chase of her, especially 
as three frigates had parted company ; for until this garrison 
is safe down, I do not think our business is well finished." 
Its arrival completed the evacuation of the Mediterranean. 

At Gibraltar several days were spent, evidently crowded 
with administrative details concerning the coming and going of 
convoys, for there is here an almost total cessation of Nelson's 
usually copious letter-writing. An interesting and instructive 
incident is, however, made known to us by one of the three 
letters dated during these ten days. The Consul of the 
United States of America had to apply to him for the pro- 



CLOSE BLOCKADE OF CADIZ 247 



tectioii of twelve American merchant ships, then at Malaga, 
against the probable depredations of French privateers lying 
in that port, which, under the edicts of the government of the 
French Republic, with whom the United States was at peace, 
were expected to overhaul and capture them when they sailed. 
Nelson at once complied, ordering a British frigate to go to 
Malaga and escort the vessels to the Barbary coast, and even 
out of the Straits, if necessary. In doing this, he wrote cour- 
teously to the Consul: "I am sure of fultilling the wishes of 
my Sovereign, and I hope of strengthening the harmony which 
at present so happily subsists between the two nations." 

On the 24th of May Nelson rejoined the admiral off Cadiz, 
and on the 27th shifted his own flag into the '' Theseus." The 
day before he left the fleet, April 11th, Jervis had decided to 
institute a strict commercial blockade of Cadiz, with the object 
of distressing Spanish trade, preventing the entrance of sup- 
plies, upon which depended the operations of Spain against 
Portugal, as well as her naval preparations, and so forcing the 
Spanish fleet out to fight, in order to rid itself of such embar- 
rassment. Nelson, as commander of the inshore squadron, 
had then issued the necessary notices to neutrals in the port, 
and to this charge he now returned. Under Jervis's intelli- 
gent partiality, he, the junior flag-officer, was thus intrusted 
with a command, which in the conduct of details, great and 
small, and in emergencies, was practically independent. Jervis, 
knowing his man, was content to have it so, reserving of course 
to himself the decision of the broad outlines of military exer- 
tion. The inshore squadron was gradually increased till it 
numbered ten sail-of-the-line. The boats of the fleet, which 
had been rowing guard off the harbor's mouth under the 
general supervision of the two senior flag-officers, were 
ordered, shortly after Nelson's arrival, to report to him ; 
and upon him, indeed, devolved pretty nearly all the active 
enterprises of the fleet. It was his practice to visit the line 
of boats every night in his barge, to see by personal inspec- 
tion of these outposts that his instructions were fully observed. 
"Our inferiority," he wrote about this time, "is greater than 
before. I am barely out of shot of a Spanish rear-admiral. The 
Dons hope for peace, but must soon fight us, if the war goes on." 

Another motive, perhaps even more imperative than the 



248 THE LIFE OF NELSOK 

wish to force the Dons out, now compelled. Jervis to seek by 
all means to increase the activity of his fleet, and to intrust 
the management of such activities to his most zealous and 
capable subordinate. These were the mouths of the great 
mutinies of the British iSTavy, in which the seamen of the 
Channel fleet, and of the North Sea fleet, at the Nore, had 
taken the ships out of the hands of their officers. The details 
of Jervis's management, which was distinguished as much by 
keen judgment and foresight as by iron-handed severity, that 
knew neither fear nor ruth when it struck, belong to his 
biography, not to Nelson's ; but it is necessary to note the 
attitude of the latter, a man more sympathetic, and in common 
life gentler, than his stern superior. Always solicitous for 
everything that increased the well-being and happiness of his 
crew, — as indeed was eminently the case with Jervis also, — 
he did not withhold his candid sympathy from the grievances 
alleged by the Channel fleet; grievances which, when temper- 
ately presented to the authorities, had been ignored, " I a,m 
entirely with the seamen in their first complaint. We are a 
neglected set, and, when peace comes, are shamefully treated ; 
but for the Nore scoundrels," passing on to those who had 
rebelled after substantial redress had been given, and had 
made unreasonable demands when the nation was in deadly 
peril, " I should be happy to command a ship against them." 
Jervis's measures received full support from him, clear-headed 
as ever to see the essentials of a situation. The senior vice- 
admiral, for instance, went so far as to criticise the com- 
mander-in-chief for hanging a convicted mutineer on Sunday. 
" Had it been Christmas Day instead of Sunday," wrote Nel- 
son, " I would have executed them. We know not what 
might have been hatched by a Sunday's grog : now your dis- 
cipline is safe." His glorious reputation and his known 
kindly character, supported by that of his captain, made 
mutiny impossible under his flag. It had not been up a 
month on board the " Theseus," which was lately from the 
Channel and infected with the prevalent insubordination, 
when a paper was dropped on the quarter-deck, expressing 
the devotion of the ship's company to their commander, and 
pledging that the name of the " Theseus " should yet be as 
renowned as that of the "Captain." 



CLOSE BLOCKADE OF CADIZ 249 



The stringent blockade, and the fears for the specie ships, 
weighed heavily on the Spaniards, who were not as a nation 
hearty in support of a war into which they had been coerced 
by France. Their authorities were petitioned to compel the 
fleet to go out. Whatever the event, the British would at 
least have to retire for repairs ; while if the Lima and Havana 
ships — to look for which the Cadiz people every morning 
flocked to the walls, fearing they might be already in the 
enemy's hands — should be captured, the merchants of Spain 
would be ruined. Better lose ten ships-of-the-line, if need be, 
than this convoy. AVith rumors of this sort daily reaching 
him. Nelson's faculties were in a constant state of pleasing 
tension. He was in his very element of joyous excitement 
and expectation. ''We are in the advance day and night, 
prepared for battle ; bulkheads down, ready to weigh, cut, or 
slip,^ as the occasion may require. I have given out a line of 
battle — myself to lead ; and you may rest assured that I will 
make a vigorous attack upon them, the moment their noses 
are outside the Diamond. Pray do not send me another 
ship," he implores ; " if you send any more, they may believe 
we are prepared, and know of their intention." " If they 
come out," he writes later to a naval friend, when he had 
ten sail under him, " there will be no fighting beyond my 
squadron." 

To increase yet further the pressure upon the Spanish fleet 
to come out, a bombardment was planned against the town 
and the shipping, the superintendence of which also was 
intrusted to the commander of the inshore squadron. Only 
one bomb-vessel was provided, so that very extensive results 
could scarcely have been anticipated, but Nelson saw, with 
evident glee, that the enemy's gunboats had taken advanced 
positions, and intended to have a hand in the night's work. 
" So much the better," wrote he to Jervis ; " I wish to make it 
a warm night in Cadiz. If they venture from their walls, I 
shall give Johnny "^ his full scope for fighting. It will serve 
to talk of better than mischief." " It is good," he writes to 
another, " at these times to keep the devil out of their heads. 

1 Cut, or let go, the cables, — leaving the anchor in haste, instead of rais- 
ing it from the bottom. 
^ The British seamen". 



250 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

I had rather see fifty shot by the enemy, than one hanged 
by us." 

The bombardment, which was continued upon two succes- 
sive nights, did little direct harm ; but it led to a sharp hand- 
to-hand contest between the British and Spanish boats, in 
which Nelson personally bore a part, and upon which he 
seems afterwards to have dwelt with even greater pride and 
self-satisfaction than upon the magnificent victories with 
which his name is associated. "It was during this period that 
perhaps my personal courage was more conspicuous than at 
any other part of my life." On the first night the Spaniards 
sent out a great number of mortar gunboats and armed 
launches. Upon these he directed a vigorous attack to be 
made, which resulted in their being driven back under the 
walls of Cadiz ; the Bi-itish, who pursued them, capturing two 
boats and a launch. In the affray, he says, "I was boarded in 
my barge with its common crew of ten men, coxswain. Captain 
Freemantle, and myself, by the commander of the gunboats ; 
the Spanish barge rowed twenty-six oars, besides officers, — 
thirty men in the whole. This was a service hand-to-hand 
with swords, in which my coxswain, John Sykes, now no 
more, twice saved my life. Eighteen of the Spaniards being 
killed and several wounded, we succeeded in taking their 
commander." In his report he complimented this Spanish 
officer, Don Miguel Tyrason, upon his gallantry. Near a hun- 
dred Spaniards were made prisoners in this sharp skirmish. 

Not even the insult of bombardment was sufficient to attain 
the designed end of forcing the enemy's fleet out to fight. 
The Spaniards confined themselves" to a passive defence by 
their shore batteries, which proved indeed sufficient to pro- 
tect the town and shipping, for on the second night they got 
the range of the bomb-vessel so accurately that the British 
were forced to withdraw her; but this did not relieve the 
vital pressure of the blockade, which could only be removed 
by the mobile naval force coming out and fighting. So far 
from doing this, the Spanish ships of war shifted their berth 
inside to get out of the range of bombs. Nelson cast longing 
eyes upon the smaller vessels which lay near the harbor's 
mouth, forming a barricade against boat attack, and threaten- 
ing the offensive measures to which they rarely resorted. 



HEALTH AND SPIRITS 251 



"At present the brigs lie too close to each other to hope for 
a dash at them, but soon I expect to find one off her guard, 
and then — " For the rest, his sanguine resolve to persist in 
annoyance until it becomes unbearable, and insures the de- 
sired object, finds vent in the words : " if Mazaredo will not 
come out, down comes Cadiz ; and not only Cadiz, but their 
fleet." 

This close succession of varied and exciting active service, 
unbroken between the day of his leaving Lisbon, March 5th, 
and the date of the last bombardment, July 5th, had its 
usual effect npon his spirits. His correspondence is all 
animation, full of vitality and energy, betraying throughout 
the happiness of an existence absorbed in congenial work, at 
peace with itself, conscious of power adequate to the highest 
demands upon it, and rejoicing in the strong admiration and 
confidence felt and expressed towards him on all sides, espe- 
cially by those whose esteem he most valued. He complains 
of his health, indeed, from time to time ; he cannot last an- 
other winter ; he is suffering for the want of a few months' 
rest, which he must ask for in the coming October, and trusts 
that, " after four years and nine months' service, without one 
moment's repose for body or mind, credit will be given me " 
that I do not sham." 

Bodily suffering was his constant attendant, to which he 
always remained subject, but at this time it was powerless to 
depress the moral energies which, under less stimulating 
conditions, at times lost something of their elastic force. 
They never, indeed, failed to rise equal to imminent emer- 
gency, however obscured in hours of gloom, or perplexity, 
or mental conflict ; but now, supported by the concurrence 
of every favoring influence, they carried him along in the 
full flow of prosperity and exhilaration. Thanking Earl 
Spencer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, for a compli- 
mentary letter, he says : " The unbounded praises Sir John 
Jervis has ever heaped, and continues to heap on me, are a 
noble reward for any services which an officer under his 
command could perform. Nor is your Lordship less profuse 
in them." To his wife he writes: "I assure you I never 
was better, and rich in the praises of every man, from the 
highest to the lowest in the fleet." " The imperious call of 



252 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

liououi' to serve my country, is the ouly thing that keeps me 
a moment from you, and a hope, that by staying a little longer, 
it may enable you to enjoy those little luxuries which you so 
highly merit.'^ '' My late affair here ^ will not, I believe, lower 
me in the opinion of the world. I have had flattery enough to 
make me vain, and success enough to make me confident." 

XoTE. Tu Naval Biography and History, distinguished ships have 
a personality only less vivid than that of the men who fought them. 
The fate of the " Captain," Nelson's flagship at St. Vincent, can 
therefore scarcely fail to interest readers. The author is indebted to 
Lieutenant Henry Chamberlain, R. N., for calling his attention to the 
following paragraph in the Naval Chronicle, for 1813, vol. sxix. 
p. 245: — 

" On the night of Friday, March 22d, the Captain, of 74 guns 
(Lord Nelson's ship when lie took the San Josef), which had recently 
been converted into a hulk at Plymouth, took fire, and was totally 
destroyed. The San Josef, which lay alongside, was with difficulty 
preserved." 

1 The night conflict with the Spanish launches. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Unsuccessful Attempt against Teneriffe. — Nelson loses his 
Eight Arm. — Eeturn to England — Rejoins St. Vincent's Fleet, 
and sent into the mediterranean to watch the toulon 
Armament. 

July, 1797-April, 1798. Age, 39. 

TOO much success is not wholly desirable ; an occasional 
beating is good for men — and nations. When Nelson 
wrote the words with which the preceding chapter ends, he 
was on the eve of a sharp reverse, met in attempting an 
enterprise that had occupied his thoughts for more than three 
months. While cruising for the Viceroy of Mexico, before 
Jervis left Lisbon with the fleet, he had considered the pos- 
sibility of the enemy's treasure-ships, warned of their danger, 
taking refuge in the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain. 
Meditating upon the contingency, he had formed a project of 
seizing them there, and probably had already suggested the 
matter to Jervis, taking advantage of the freedom permitted 
him by the latter in advancing opinions. However that be, 
immediately before he started to meet the Elba convoy, the 
commander-in-chief asked for his plan, which he submitted 
in writing, after talking it over with Troubridge, his intimate 
friend, upon whose judgment Jervis also greatly relied. Re- 
garded as a purely naval expedition, Nelson pointed out that 
it was subject to great uncertainties, because, the land being 
very high, the wind could not be depended on. It might 
blow in from the sea, but if so it would be by daylight, which 
would deprive the attack of the benefits of a surprise ; while 
at night the land wind was too fitful and unreliable to assure 
the ships reaching their anchorage before the enemy could 
discover them, and have time for adequate preparation against 
assault. 

For these reasons, certainty of success would depend upon 
co-operation by the army, and for that Nelson suggested that 



254 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the Elba troops, over three thousand strong, already in trans- 
ports and on their way, would provide a force at once available 
and sufficient. Save a naval dash by Blake, more than a 
century before, Teneriffe had never been seriously attacked. 
Probably, therefore, the heights commanding the town of 
Santa Cruz had not been fortified, and could be easily seized 
by the detachment designated ; besides which, the water supply 
was exposed to interruption by an outside enemy. If only 
General De Burgh could be persuaded, Nelson was sure of 
success, and offered himself to command the naval contingent. 
Failing the consent of De Burgh, whom he and Jervis both 
thought deficient in moral courage to undertake responsibility, 
could not the admiral get assistance from O'Hara, the governor 
of Gibraltar, who would have at his disposal one thousand to 
fifteen hundred men ? More would be better, but still with 
that number success would be probable. " Soldiers," regretted 
Nelson characteristically, " have not the same boldness in un- 
dertaking a political measure that we have ; we look to the 
benefit of our Country and risk our own fame [not life merely] 
every day to serve her : a soldier obeys his orders and no 
more." But he thought O'Hara an exception, and then — 
could not the substantial advantages move him ? The public 
treasure of Spain that might be seized would be six or seven 
millions sterling. Think what that sum would be, " thrown 
into circulation in England! " Avhere specie payments had just 
been suspended. It was nearly a year's value of the subsidies 
which Great Britain was lavishing on the general war. 
Whatever the merits of Nelson's judgment upon the soldiers 
of his day, this avowal of readiness, for the nation's sake, to 
risk fame — reputation — which was in his eyes the dearest 
of possessions, should not be overlooked. It was the best he 
had to give ; to hazard life was but a vulgar thing compared to 
it. His career, both before and after, fully bore out the boast. 
While on the return with the Elba troops, in a despatch 
sent ahead of the convoy, he jogs Jervis's memory about 
O'Hara, having doubtless ascertained that De Burgh, as they 
expected, would not deviate from his orders to proceed to 
Lisbon. " I hope you will press General O'Hara about 
Teneriffe. What a strike it would be!" In a copy of this 
letter forwarded to the Admiralty, presumably by Jervis for 



THE TENERIFFE EXPEDITION 



255 



its general information, these words were omitted. Possibly 
he had already sonnded O'Hara, and found him unwilling, for 
he was not optimistic ; possibly Jervis himself thought that the 
fitting conditions had not yet obtained, and did not care to let 
the idea get abroad before the hour for execution arrived. For 
the time, the commander-in-chief preferred to keep his fleet 
concentrated before Cadiz, and to try to worry the enemy out 
to battle ; for which object, indisputably the most advan- 
tageous to be pursued, he 'also naturally wished to xise his 



^lif»%^ 




SKETCH OF SANTA CRUZ AND SUKKOUNDINGS. 

(From Nelson's Journal.) 



most active and efficient subordinate. Both blockade and 
bombardment having failed to provoke the enemy to action, 
and intelligence having been received that a treasure-ship 
from Manila had put into Teneriffe, it was decided in July to 
make the attempt, which had only been postponed — never 
abandoned. In words written by Nelson on the 18th of June, 
the conditions determining Jervis's course are clearly indicated. 
" I wish these fellows would come out, and then, with the good 
ships we have left [after a general engagement], we might 
be a little at liberty to make dashes. I hope your design 
about Teneriffe will not get wind, by making inquiries at the 
present moment. Whenever I see it," he added character- 
istically, " ten hours shall decide its fate." Although unable 
to obtain the troops upon which he considered certaint}'- to 
depend, he felt little fear for the result. Two hundred 
additional marines must be given, and certain specified artillery 



256 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and ammunition in excess of what he had. With these, " I 
have no doubt of doing the job as it ought to be, the moment 
the ships come in sight." " Under General Troubridge ashore, 
and myself afloat, I am confident of success." 

On the 14th of July he received his orders, which were to 
seize Santa Cruz, the chief town, and hold the island to ran- 
som, unless all public treasure were surrendered to his 
squadron, in which case the contribution on the inhabitants 
should not be levied. " God bless and prosper you," wrote 
Jervis, who, although he considered the enterprise promising, 
was less sanguine than his junior. " I am sure you will 
deserve success. To mortals is not given the power of com- 
manding it." On the 15th Nelson sailed, having under his 
command three seventy-fours, a fifty-gun ship, three frigates, 
and a cutter. Towards sundown of the 20th the Peak of 
Teneriffe was sighted, distant fifty or sixty miles. The follow- 
ing morning the landing-party, a thousand strong, under the 
command of Captain Troubridge, was transferred to the 
frigates. The intention was to keep the line-of-battle-ships 
out of sight, while the frigates, whose apparent force would 
carry no impression of menace, approached near enough to 
make a dash during the night. It was hoped that thus the 
assault might be so far a surprise as to enable the British to 
storm from the rear a fort on the heights, to the northeast 
of the town, and commanding it. Santa Cruz was then to be 
summoned. In the meantime the ships-of-the-line would be 
coming in from the sea, and upon arrival would support the 
shore movement by bringing their broadsides to bear upon the 
walls. 

By midnight the frigates were within three miles of the 
landing-place ; but there strong wind and contrary current 
delayed them, and before they could get within a mile the day 
dawned. Thus discovered, the hope of surprise was lost. At 
6 A.M., when the squadron approached, Troubridge went 
on board the " Theseus " and told Nelson that he thought, 
if the heights over the fort, in its rear, could be seized, 
he could yet compel it to surrender. The landing-party 
was therefore put on shore at nine, but could not dispossess 
the enemy, who had recognized the importance of the position 
indicated by Troubridge, and had occupied it in force. The 



THE TENERIFFE EXPEDITION 257 

ships-of-the-line endeavored to get within range of the fort, 
to batter it, but could not come nearer than three miles. They 
were unable even to reach anchoring-ground, and, as it was 
blowing very fresh, they struck their topgallantmasts and. 
stood off and on. At night Troubridge re-embarked his men 
on board the frigates, which had remained where they were. 
The following morning, July 23d, Nelson abandoned the 
attempt upon the fort, recalling the frigates ; and, as the wind 
did not yet serve to approach the shore, he continued under 
sail during that day and the next. The members of the landing- 
party rejoined their proper ships. 

Troubridge's failure to act at once upon his own judgment, 
and seize the heights above the fort, instead of waiting until 
he could communicate with the admiral, whereby were lo?t 
more than three invaluable hours, excites surprise, in view of 
the extremely high value set upon him as an officer by St. 
Vincent and Nelson ; and is the more singular because the 
latter, in certain " Eecommendations," dated July 17, had in- 
dicated the heights, as well as the fort, among the objects to 
be secured. It is, of course, possible that these Eecommen- 
dations were not given out ; but even so, the formal orders 
issued gave ample discretion. This hesitation was wholly 
contrary to Nelson's own readiness to assume responsibility, 
and probably accounts for his subsequent remark, in a private 
letter, that had he himself been present this first attempt 
would not have failed. Occurring in an officer of Troubridge's 
high standing, and contrasted with Nelson's action at St. 
Vincent, as well as on many other occasions, the incident 
serves to bring out forcibly the characteristic eminence of the 
latter, — the distinction between a really great captain and 
the best type of a simply accomplished and gallant officer. It 
may safely be said that had Nelson been in the frigates that 
morning, and thought as Troubridge thought, he would either 
have had the heights without waiting for orders, or, to use his 
own words on a former occasion, would have " been in a con- 
founded scrape." 

His first x)lan having miscarried, Nelson was nevertheless 
unwilling to forsake the enterprise wholly, without attempting 
a direct assault upon the town itself. Meantime the enemy 
was not idle, but employed the delay caused by the wind to 

17 



258 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

collect a greater force, and to develop further the preparations 
to repel attack. At half -past five in the evening of July 24 
the squadron reached an anchorage two or three miles north 
of Santa Cruz, and all boats were ordered prepared for a night 
expedition. Captain Fremantle, of the frigate '^ Seahorse," 
had with him his wife, whom he had lately married ; and with 
them Nelson, who intended to lead the attack in person, 
supped that evening. He was conscious of the imminent 
danger to which he was about to expose himself and his fol- 
lowers ; it is indeed scarcely possible that he could, in under- 
taking the adventure, have expected to succeed, except thi-ough 
some happy accident skilfully improved, — the deserved good 
fortune which had so often attended him. It was not so much 
the hope of victory that moved him, as the feeling that to re- 
treat baffled, without a further effort, would be worse than 
defeat. This in fact was the reason which he afterwards gave. 
" Although I felt the second attack a forlorn hope, yet the 
honour of our Country called for the attack, and that I should 
command it. I never expected to return." " Your partiality 
will give me credit," he wrote to Jervis, "that all has hitherto 
been done which was possible, but without effect : this night 
I, humble as I am, command the whole, destined to land under 
the batteries of the town, and to-morrow my head will prob- 
ably be crowned with either laurel or cypress. I liave only to 
recommend Josiah iSTisbet [his stepson] to you and my Coun- 
try." He urged ISTisbet not to go in the boats, on the ground 
that his mother should not run the risk of losing both hus- 
band and son in one night, and that in the absence of Captain 
Miller, who was going in charge of a division of men, Nisbet's 
duties with the ship demanded his remaining. Nisbet steadily 
refused, and his presence was the immediate means of saving 
the admiral's life. 

At eleven p. m. the boats shoved off, carrying a thousand 
men. The orders were for all to land at the mole, the inten- 
tion being to storm it, and the batteries covering it, in a body, 
and to fight their way, thus massed, to the great square, which 
was designated as the place for rallying. A considerable sea 
was running and the night dark, so that the Spaniards did not 
discover the assailants till they were within half gunshot. 
The bells of the place then began to ring, and a heavy fire 



THE ASSAULT AT SANTA CRUZ 259 

opened, amid which the British pushed vigorously forward. 
Mau}^, however, missed the mole. Nelson's own boat reached 
it with four or five besides, and the parties from these suc- 
ceeded in carrying the mole itself, advancing to its head and 
spiking the guns ; but there they were met with such a sus- 
tained fire of musketry and grape from the citadel and the 
neighboring houses, that they could get no farther. Many 
were killed and wounded, and the rest after a struggle had 
to retreat. 

Troubridge, with a number of others who missed the mole, 
landed amid a heavy surf, which stove the boats on a rocky 
beach and tumbled the men into the water, whereby most of 
the ammunition was spoiled. In the midst of the turmoil 
the cutter " Fox " was struck by a shot under water, and went 
down, taking with her her commander and ninety-seven men. 
Although the scaling-ladders had all been lost in the "general 
upset, those who here got on shore succeeded in climbing over 
the walls, and forced their way to the place of rendezvous in 
the great square. There Troubridge, having assembled be- 
tween three and four hundred men, held his ground, awaiting 
Xelson and the party that might have entered by way of the 
mole. 

It was in vain. Nelson had been struck by a grapeshot in 
the right elbow, as, with sword drawn, he was stepping from 
the boat to the landing. Bleeding profusely and faint, but 
clinging with his left hand to the sword, which had belonged 
to his uncle Maurice Suckling, he fell back into the arms of 
Josiah Nisbet, who managed with considerable presence of 
mind to bind up the shattered limb and stop the flowing of the 
blood. A few men being got together, the boat pushed off to 
take the admiral back to the ship. At this moment occurred 
the sinking of the " Fox ; " upon which much delay ensued, 
because Nelson refused to abandon the men struggling in the 
water, and insisted upon looking personally to their being 
saved. At last the " Seahorse " was reached ; but here again 
he would not go on board, saying that he would not have 
Mrs. Fremantle alarmed by seeing him in such a condition 
and without any news of her husband, who had accompanied 
the landing. When he got to the " Theseus," he declined 
assistance to climb to the deck. " At two in the morning," 



260 THE LIFE OF ]?fELSON 

wrote Hoste, one of her midshipmen, who had been with him 
continuously since the " Agamemnon " left England, " Admiral 
Nelson returned on board, being dreadfully wounded in the 
right arm. I leave you to judge of my situation, when I be- 
held our boat approach with him, who I may say has been a 
second father to me, his right arm dangling by his side, while 
with the other he helped himself to jump up the ship's side, 
and with a spirit that astonished every one, told the surgeon 
to get his instruments ready, for he knew he must lose his 
arm, and that the sooner it was off the better." 

At daylight Troubridge, who had collected some ammunition 
from Spanish prisoners, started from the square to try what 
could be done without ladders against the citadel; but, find- 
ing every approach blocked by overwhelming force, he had to 
retreat. Having neither powder nor provisions, and no boats 
with which to return to the ship, he sent a flag of truce to the 
governor to say that he was prepared to burn the place down 
with means at his disposal, but, being most reluctant to do so, 
was willing to treat, upon condition of the whole party being 
permitted to return to the ships, free and with their arms. 
One scarcely knows which most to admire, Troubridge's cool 
audacity in making such a demand, or the chivalrous readi- 
ness with which these honorable terms were at once granted 
to a man whose gallant bearing compelled the esteem of his 
enemies. Don Juan Gutierrez had repulsed the various at- 
tempts with such steadiness and watchfulness, had managed 
his business so well, that he could afford to be liberal. He 
agreed that Troubridge's men should withdraw, carrying off 
with them all British equipments, even to such boats as had 
been taken by the Spaniards, but could still swim. On the 
other hand, it was stipulated that no further attempt upon 
the town should be made by ISTelson's squadron. Prisoners on 
both sides were to be given up. This arrangement having 
been concluded, the governor directed that the British wounded 
should be at once received into the hospitals, while the rest of 
the party, with their colors flying, marched to the mole, and 
there embarked. 

Troubridge dwelt with evident pride upon his part in this 
night's work, — a pride that was shared then by his superiors, 
and will be justified in the eyes of military men now. " The 




SIR THOMAS TROUBRIDGE. 

From the Fainting by Sir William Beechey. 



THE ASSAULT AT SANTA CRUZ. 261 

Spanish officers assure me they expected us, and were per- 
fectly prepared with all the batteries, and the number of men 
I have before mentioned [8,000], under arms : with the great 
disadvantage of a rocky coast, high surf, and in the face of 
forty pieces of cannon, though we were not successful, will 
show what an Englishman is equal to." His conduct affords 
for all time an example of superb courage in the face of ex- 
traordinary and unexpected difficulty and danger, and especially 
of single-minded energy in carrying through one's own share 
of an enterprise, without misplaced concern about conse- 
quences, or worry as to whether the other parties were pros- 
pering or not. Had Nelson reached the square he would have 
found Troubridge there, and that was the one thing about which 
the latter needed to care. Nelson's own words recur to mind: 
" I have not a tliought on any subject separated from the im- 
mediate object of my command," — a maxim eminently suited 
to the field and to the subordinate, though not necessarily so 
to the council chamber or to the general officer. Troubridge 
that night proved himself invaluable as a subordinate, though 
the conduct of the previous attempt seems to show a lack of 
that capacity to seize a favorable moment, although in the 
presence of a superior, of which Nelson himself had given so 
brilliant an example at Cape St. Vincent. 

The squadron remained off Teneriffe for three days after 
the assault, intercourse with the shore for the purpose of 
obtaining fresh provisions being permitted by the governor, 
between whom and the admiral were exchanged complimentary 
letters and presents of courtesy. On the 27th Nelson sailed 
for Cadiz, and on the ICth of August rejoined the commander- 
in-chief, now become Earl St. Vincent. The latter received 
him with generous sympathy and appreciation, which leave 
little doubt as to what his verdict would have been, had the 
gallant initiative taken by his junior at St. Vincent ended in 
disaster, instead of in brilliant success. Nelson's letters, sent 
ahead of the squadron by a frigate, had shown the despondency 
produced by suffering and failure, which had reversed so 
sharply the good fortune upon which he had begun to pride 
himself. <' I am become a burthen to my friends and useless 
to my Country. When I leave your command, I become dead 
to the world; I go hence and am no more seen." ''Mortals 



262 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

cannot command success," replied St. Vincent. " You and your 
companions have certainly deserved it, by the greatest degree 
of heroism and perseverance that ever was exhibited." ISTelson 
had asked for his stepson's promotion, implying that he him- 
self would not hereafter be in a position of influence to lielp 
the boy — for he was little more. " He is under obligations to 
me, but he repaid me by bringing me from the mole of Santa 
Cruz." '•' He saved my life," he said more than once after- 
wards. St. Vincent immediately made him a commander into 
the vacancy caused by the death of Captain Bowen, who had 
fallen in the assault. " Pretty quick promotion," wrote his 
messmate Hoste, who probably knew, from close association, 
that Nisbet had not the promising qualities with which he 
was then credited by his stepfather, from whom in later years 
he became wholly estranged. 

On the 20th Nelson received formal leave to return to Eng- 
land in the " Seahorse," and on the 3d of September his flag 
was hauled down at Spithead. On the way home he suffered 
niucli. After amputation the ligature had been awkwardly 
applied to the humeral artery. As he would not allow the 
surgeon to examine the stuuip during the passage, this was 
not then discovered, but the intense spasms of pain kept him 
irritable and depressed. It is likely, too, that his discour- 
agement was increased by brooding over the failure of his 
enterprise ; believing, as he did, that had he been with the 
landing-party, the first attempt would have succeeded. He 
could scarcely fail now to see that, although it was strictly 
in accordance with service methods for the senior to remain 
with the ships, the decisive point in the plan, as first formed, 
was the seizure of the heights, and that there, consequently, 
was the true place for the one in chief command. Any captain, 
Troubridge especially, could have placed the ships as well as 
Nelson. It is self-accusation, and not fault-finding merely, 
that breathes in the words : " Had I been with the first party, 
I have reason to believe complete success would have crowned 
our efforts. My i^ide suffered.''^ 

Whatever his mental distress, however, he always, from the 
time of receiving the wound, wi'ote to his wife with careful 
cheerfulness. " As to my health, it never was better ; and 
now I hope soon to return to you ; and my Country, I trust, 



LADY NELSON. 

From a photograph by Mr. E. Kelly, of Plymouth, of a minia- 
ture in the possession of Mrs. F. H. B. Eccles, of Shenvell House, 
Plymouth, a great-granddaughter of Lady N'elson. Believed to 
have been painted about the time of the Battle of the Nile. 



SICK LEAVE IN ENGLAND 2G3 

will not allow me any longer to linger in want of that pecu- 
niary assistance which I have been fighting the whole war to 
preserve to her. But I shall not be surprised to be neglected 
and forgot, as probably I shall no longer be considered as 
useful. However, I shall feel rich if I continue to enjoy 
your affection. I am fortunate in having a good surgeon on 
board ; in short, I am much more recovered than I could have 
expected. I beg neither you or my father will think much 
of this mishap : my mind has long been made up to such an 
event." 

Immediately after quitting the " Seahorse " he joined his 
wife and father at Bath. For a time the wound seemed to 
be progressing favorably, but the imlucky complication of the 
ligature threw him back. "jNIuch pain and some fever," he 
wrote to a friend soon after his arrival ; and Avliile he kept up 
fairly before his wife, who spoke of his spirits as very good, 
he confessed to St. Vincent, on the 18th of September, that he 
was then not the least better than when he left the fleet. " I 
have suffered great misery." This letter was dated in London, 
whither he had gone a few days before to be invested with 
the Order of the Bath, which was formally done by George 
III. in person on the 27th of September. He was graciously 
received by the King, who conversed with him after the 
ceremony, and by his manner throughout made a lasting im- 
pression upon the mind of Nelson, whose loyalty was intense. 
The Order of the Bath remained the most highly prized among 
his many decorations. At the same time was awarded him a 
pension of £1,000 a year. 

He remained in London till near Christmas. Sir Gilbert 
Elliot, the late Viceroy of Corsica, who about this time became 
Lord Minto, saw him not long after his arrival there, as did 
also Colonel Drinkwater. Elliot found him looking better and 
fresher than he ever remembered him, although the continued 
pain prevented sleep, except by use of opium. He was already 
impatient to go to sea again, and chafed under the delay of 
healing, concerning the duration of which the surgeons could 
give him no assurance. The ligature must be left to slough 
away, for it was two inches up the wound, and if, in attempt- 
ing to cut it, the artery should be cut, another amputation 
would be necessary higher up, which would not be easy, for 



2G4 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the stump was already very short. There was consequently 
nothing for it but endurance. To his suffering at this time 
an accomplished surgeon, who sailed with him shortly before 
Trafalgar, attributed a neuralgic predisposition under which 
he then labored, and which produced serious effects upon his 
general health. 

A singular exhibition of his characteristic animation and 
temperament was elicited by Drinkwater's visit. The colonel 
saw him shortly before the naval battle of Caraperdown, 
fought on the 11th of October. " One of the first questions 
which Nelson put to me was whether I had been at the Admi- 
ralty. I told him there was a rumou.r that the British fleet 
had been seen engaged with that of Holland. He started 
Tip in his peculiar energetic manner, notwithstanding Lady 
Nelson's attempts to quiet him, and stretching out his un- 
wounded arm, — 'Drinkwater,' said he, 'I would give this 
other arm to be with Duncan ^ at this moment ; ' so unconquer- 
able was the spirit of the man, and so intense his eagerness to 
give every instant of his life to the service." 

Until the 4th of December his agony continued. On that 
day the ligature came away, giving instant and entire relief. 
In a letter to a friend, apologizing for delay in replying, he 
said: "Truly, till last Monday, I have suffered so much, I 
hope for your forgiveness. I am now perfectly recovered, 
and on the eve of being employed." On Friday, the 8th, he 
wrote to Captain Berr}^, who had led the boarders to the " San 
Nicolas " at Cape St. Vincent, and was designated to command 
the ship in which the admiral's flag should next be hoisted, 
saying that he was well ; and the same day, with that pro- 
found recognition of a personal Providence which was with 
him as instinctive as his courage, he sent to a London clergy- 
man the following request: "An oflicer desires to return 
thanks to Almighty God for his perfect recovery from a severe 
wound, and also for the many mercies bestowed upon him. 
(For next Sunday.)" 

As the close attention of the skilled surgeons in whose 
hands he had been was now no longer needed, he returned to 
Bath to await the time when his flagship should be completely 

1 The British admiral in comniaiul of the fleet which fought at Camper- 
down . 



DEPAKTURE FOE MEDITERRANEAN, 1798 265 

equipped. St. Vincent ]iad asked that tlie " Foudroyant," of 
eighty guns, should be prepared for him ; but, after his sudden 
recovery, as she was not yet ready, there was substituted for 
her the "Vanguard," seventy-four, which was commissioned 
by Berry at Chatham on the 19th of December. In March 
she had reached Portsmouth, and Nelson then went up to 
London, where he attended a levee on the 14th of the month 
and took leave of the King, On the 29th his flag was hoisted, 
and on the 10th of April, after a week's detention at St. 
Helen's by head winds, he sailed for Lisbon. There he re- 
mained for four days, and on the 30th of the month, off Cadiz, 
rejoined St. Vincent, by whom he was received Avith open 
arms. The veteran seaman, stern and resolved as was his 
bearing in the face of danger, was unhopeful about the results 
of the war, which from the first he had not favored, and for 
whose ending he was eager. Now, at sixty-four, his health 
was failing, and the difficulties and dangers of the British 
cause in the Mediterranean weighed upon him, with a discour- 
agement very alien from the sanguine joy with which his 
ardent junior looked forward to coming battles. His request 
to be relieved from command, on the score of ill-health, 
was already on file at the Admiralty. " I do assure your 
Lordship," he wrote to Earl Spencer, "that the arrival of 
Admiral Nelson has given me new life; you could not 
have gratified me more than in sending him ; his presence in 
the Mediterranean is so very essential, that I mean to put 
the "Orion" and "Alexander " under his command, with the 
addition of three or four frigates, and send him away, to en- 
deavour to ascertain the real object of the preparations mak- 
ing by the French." These preparations for a maritime 
expedition were being made at Toulon and the neighboring 
ports, on a scale which justly aroused the anxiety of the 
British Cabinet, as no certain information about their object 
had been obtained. 

Nelson's departure from England on this occasion closes 
the first of the two periods into which his career naturally 
divides. From his youth until now, wherever situated, the 
development has been consecutive and homogeneous, external 
influences and internal characteristics have worked harmoni- 
ously together, nature and ambition have responded gladly to 



266 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

opportunit}', and the course upon which they have combiued 
to urge him has conformed to his inherited and acquired 
standards of right and wrong. Doubt, uncertainty, inward 
friction, double motives, have been unknown to him ; he has 
moved freely in accordance with the laws of his being, and, 
despite the anxieties of his profession and the frailty of his 
health, there is no mistaking the tone of happiness and con- 
tentment which sounds without a jarring note throughout his 
correspondence. A change Avas now at hand. As the sails of 
the "Vanguard" dip below the horizon of England, a brief 
interlude begins, and when the curtain rises again, the scene 
is shifted, — surroundings have changed. We see again the 
same man, but standing at the opening of a new career, whose 
greatness exceeds by far even the high anticipations that had 
been formed for him. Before leaving England he is a man of 
distinction only ; prominent, possibly, among the many distin- 
guished men of his ov/n profession, but the steady upward 
course has as yet been gradual, the shining of the light, if it 
has latterly shot forth flashes suggestive of hidden fires, is still 
characterized by sustained growth in intensity rather than by 
rapid increase. No present sign so far foretells the sudden 
ascent to fame, the burst of meridian splendor with which the 
sun of his renown was soon to rise upon men's eyes, and in 
which it ran its course to the cloudless finish of his day. 

Not that there is in that course — in its achievements — 
any disproportion with the previous promise. The magni- 
tude of the development we are about to witness is due, not to 
a change in him, but to the increased greatness of the oppor- 
tunities. A man of like record in the past, but less gifted, 
might, it is true, have failed to fill the new sphere which the 
future was to present. Nelson proved fully equal to it, be- 
cause he possessed genius for war, intellectual faculties, 
which, though not unsuspected, had not hitherto been allowed 
scope for their full exercise. Before him was now about to 
open a field of possibilities hitherto unexampled in naval war- 
fare; and for the appreciation of them was needed just those 
perceptions, intuitive in origin, yet resting firmly on well- 
ordered rational processes, which, on the intellectual side, 
distinguished him above all other British seamen. He had 
already, in casual comment upon the military conditions sur- 



HIS MILITARY GENIUS 267 

rounding the former Mediterranean campaigns, given indica- 
tions of these perceptions, which it has been the aim of 
previous chapters to elicit from his correspondence, and to 
marshal in such order as may illustrate his mental character- 
istics. But, for success in war, the indispensable complement 
of intellectual grasp and insight is a moral power, which 
enables a man to trust the inner light, — to have faith, — a 
power which dominates hesitation, and sustains action, in the 
most tremendous emergencies, and which, from the formidable 
character of the difficulties it is called to confront, is in no men 
so conspicuously prominent as in those who are entitled to 
rank among great captains. The two elements — mental and 
moral power — are often found separately, rarely in due combi- 
nation. In Nelson chey met, and their coincidence with the 
exceptional opportunities afforded him constituted his good 
fortune and his greatness. 

The intellectual endowment of genius was Nelson's from 
the first ; but from the circumstances of his life it was denied 
the privilege of early manifestation, such as was permitted to 
Napoleon. It is," consequently, not so much this as the con- 
stant exhibition of moral power, force of character, which 
gives continuity to his professional career, and brings the 
successive stages of his advance, in achievement and reputa- 
tion, from first to last, into the close relation of steady devel- 
opment, subject to no variation save that of healthy and 
vigorous growth, till he stood unique — above all competition. 
This it was — not, doubtless, to the exclusion of tliat reputa- 
tion for having a head, upon which he justly prided himself 
— which had already fixed the eyes of his superiors upon him 
as the one officer, not yet indeed fully tested, most likely to 
cope with the difficulties of any emergency. In the display 
of this, in its many self-revelations, — in concentration of pur- 
pose, untiring energy, fearlessness of responsibility, judgment 
sound and instant, boundless audacity, promptness, intrepidity, 
and endurance beyond all proof, — the restricted field of Coi-- 
sica and the Eiviera, the subordinate position at Cape St. 
Vincent, the failure of Teneriffe, had in their measure been as 
fruitful as the Nile was soon to be, and fell naught behind the 
bloody harvests of Copenhagen and Trafalgar. Men have 
been disposed, therefore, to reckon this moral energy — call it 



268 THE LITE OF NELSON 

courage, dash, resolution, what you will — as Kelson's one 
and only great quality. It was the greatest, as it is in all 
successful men of action ; but to ignore that this mighty 
motive force was guided by singularly clear and accurate per- 
ceptions, upon which also it consciously rested with a firmness 
of faith that constituted much of its power, is to rob him of a 
great part of his due renown. 

But it was not only in the greatness of the opportunities 
offered to Nelson that external conditions now changed. The 
glory of the hero brought a temptation which wrecked the 
happiness of the man. The loss of serenity, the dark evidences 
of inward conflict, of yielding against conviction, of conse- 
quent dissatisfaction with self and gradual deterioration, make 
between his past and future a break as clear, and far sharper 
than, the startling increase of radiancy that attends the Battle 
of the Nile, and thenceforth shines with undiminished inten- 
sity to the end. The lustre of his well-deserved and world- 
wide renown, the consistency and ever-rising merit of his 
professional conduct, contrast painfully with the shadows of 
reprobation, the swerving, and the declension, whicli begin to 
attend a life heretofore conformed, in the general, to healthy 
normal standards of right and wrong, but now allowed to 
violate, not merely ideal Christian rectitude, but the simple, 
natural dictates of upright dealing between man and man. 
It had been the proud boast of early years : " There is no 
action in my whole life but what is honourable." The attain- 
ment of glory exceeding even his own great aspirations 
coincides with dereliction from the plain rules of honor 
between friends, and with public humiliation to his wife, 
which he allowed himself to inflict, notwithstanding that he 
admitted her claims to his deferential consideration to be un- 
broken. In this contrast, of the exaltation of the hero and 
the patriot with the degradation of the man, lie the tragedy 
and the misery of Nelson's story. And this, too, was incurred 
on behalf of a woman whose reputation and conduct were 
such that no shred of dignity could attach to an infatuation 
as doting as it was blamable. The pitiful inadequacy of the 
temptation to the ruin it caused invests with a kind of prophecy 
the words he had written to his betrothed in the heyday of 
courtship : "■ These I trust will ever be my sentiments ; if 



MORAL DETEEIORATION 269 

they are not, I do verily believe it will be my folly that 
occasions it." 

The inward struggle, though severe, was short and decisive. 
Once determined on his course, he choked down scruples and 
hesitations, and cast them from him with the same single- 
minded resolution that distinguished his public acts. "Fixed 
as fate," were the remorseless words with which he charac- 
terized his firm purpose to trample conscience under foot, and 
to reject his wife in favor of his mistress. But although 
ease may be obtained by silencing self-reproach, safety 
scarcely can. One cannot get the salt out of his life, and not 
be the worse for it. Much that made Nelson so lovable re- 
mained to the end ; but into his heart, as betrayed by his 
correspondence, and into his life, from the occasional glimpses 
afforded by letters or journals of associates, there thenceforth 
entered much that is unlovely, and which to no appreciable 
extent was seen before. The simple bonhomie, the absence of 
conventional reticence, the superficial lack of polish, noted by 
his early biographers, and which he had had no opportunity 
to acquire, the childlike vanity that transpires so innocently 
in his confidential home letters, and was only the weak side of 
his noble longing for heroic action, degenerated rapidly into 
loss of dignity of life, into an unseemly susceptibility to ex- 
travagant adulation, as he succumbed to surroundings, the 
corruptness of which none at first realized more clearly, and 
where one woman was the sole detaining fascination. And 
withal, as the poison worked, discontent with self bred dis- 
content with others, and with his own conditions. Petulance 
and querulousness too often supplanted the mental elasticity, 
which had counted for naught the roughnesses on the road to 
fame. The mind not worthily occupied, and therefore ill at 
ease, became embittered, prone to censure and to resent, sus- 
picious at times and harsh in judgment, gradually tending 
towards alienation, not from his wife only, but from his best 
and earliest friends. 

During the short stay of seven months in England, which 
ended with the sailing of the " Vanguard," the record of his 
correspondence is necessarily very imperfect, both from the 
loss of his arm, and from the fact of his being with his family. 
Such indications as there are point to unbroken relations of 



270 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tenderness with his wife. "I found my domestic happiness 
perfect," he wrote to Lord St. Vincent, shortly after his 
arrival home ; and some months later, in a letter from Bath to 

a friend, he says jestingly : " Tell that I possess his 

place in Mr. Palmer's box ; but he did not tell me all its 
charms, that generally some of the handsomest ladies in Bath 
are partakers in the box, and was I a bachelor I would not 
answer for being tempted ; but as I am possessed of every- 
thing which is valuable in a wife, I have no occasion to think 
beyond a pretty face." Lady Nelson attended personally to 
the dressing of his arm ; she accompanied him in his journeys 
between Bath and London, and they separated only when he 
left town to hoist his flag at Portsmouth. The letters of Lady 
Saumarez, the wife of one of his brother captains then serv- 
ing with Lord St. Vincent, mention frequent meetings with 
the two together in the streets of Bath ; and upon the 1st of 
May, the day before leaving the fleet olf Cadiz for the Medi- 
terranean, on the expedition which was to result in the Nile, 
and all the consequences so fatal to the happiness of both, he 
concludes his letter, " with every kind wish that a fond heart 
can frame, believe me, as ever, your most affectionate 
husband." 

On the 2d of May the " Vanguard " quitted the fleet for 
Gibraltar, where she arrived on the 4th. On the 7th Nelson 
issued orders to Sir James Saumarez, commanding the " Orion," 
and to Captain Alexander Ball, commanding the " Alexander," 
both seventy-fours, to place themselves under his command ; 
and the following day the " Vanguard " sailed, in company 
with these ships and five smaller vessels, to begin the memo- 
rable campaign, of Avhich the Battle of the Nile was the most 
conspicuous incident. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Campaign and Battle of the Nile. 
May-September, 1798. Age, 39. 

BETWEEN the time that Nelson was wounded at TenerifEe, 
July 24, 1797, and his return to active service in April, 
1798, important and ominous changes had been occurring in 
the political conditions of Europe. These must be taken 
briefly into account, because the greatness of the issues thence 
arising, as understood by tlie British Government, measures 
the importance in its eyes of the enterprise which it was about 
to intrust, by deliberate selection, to one of the youngest flag- 
officers upon the list. The fact of the choice shows the esti- 
mation to which Nelson had already attained in the eyes of 
the Admiralty. 

In July, 1797, Great Britain alone was at war with France, 
and so continued for over a year longer. Portugal, though 
nominally an all}'-, contributed to the common cause nothing 
but the use of the Tagus by the British Navy. Austria, it is 
true, had not yet finally made peace with France, but prelim- 
inaries had been signed in April, and the definitive treaty of 
Campo Formio was concluded in October. By it Belgium 
became incorporated in the territory of France, to which was 
conceded also the frontier of the Rhine. The base of her 
power was thus advanced to the river, over which the posses- 
sion of the fortified city of Mayence gave her an easy passage, 
constituting a permanent threat of invasion to Gei-many. 
Venice, as a separate power, disappeared. Part of her former 
domains upon the mainland, with the city itself, went to 
Austria, but part was taken to constitute the Cisalpine 
Republic, — a new state in Northern Italy, nominally inde- 
pendent, but really under the control of France, to whom it 
owed its existence. Corfu, and the neighboring islands at the 



272 THE LIFE OF KELSON 

mouth of the Adriatic, till then belonging to Venice, were 
transferred to France. The choice of these distant and 
isolated maritime positions, coupled with the retention of a 
large army in the valley of the Po, showed, if any evidence 
were needed, a determination to assure control over the Italian 
peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea. 

The formal acquisitions by treaty, even, did not measure the 
full menace of the conditions. The Revolutionary ferment, 
which had partially subsided, received fresh impetus from the 
victories of Bonaparte and the cessation of Continental war ; 
and the diplomacy of France continued as active and as 
aggressive as the movement of her armies had previously 
been. By constant interference, overt and secret, not always 
stopping short of violence, French influence and French ideas 
were propagated among the weaker adjoining states. Holland, 
Switzerland, and the Italian Republics became outposts of 
France, occupied by French troops, and upon them were 
forced governments conformed to the existing French pattern. 
In short, the aggrandizement of France, not merely in moral 
inflnence but in physical control, was being pushed forward as 
decisively in peace as in war. and by means which threatened 
the political equilibrium of Europe. But, while all states 
were threatened, Great Britain remained the one chief enemy 
against which ultimately the efforts of France must be, and 
were, concentrated. " Either our government must destroy 
the English monarchy," wrote Bonaparte at this time, "or 
must expect itself to be destroyed by the corruption and 
intrigue of those active islanders." The British ministry on 
its part also realized that the sea-power of their country was 
the one force from which, because so manifold in its activities, 
and so readily exerted in many quarters by virtue of its 
mobility, France had most reason to fear the arrest of its 
revolutionary advance and the renewal of the Continental war. 
It was, therefore, the one opponent against which the efforts 
of the French must necessarily be directed. For the same 
reason it was the one centre around whose action, wisely 
guided, the elements of discontent, already stirring, might 
gather, upon the occurrence of a favorable moment, and con- 
stitute a body of resistance capable of stopping aggressions 
which threatened the general well-being. 



REAR ADMIRAL, SIR HORATIO NELSON 

IN 1798. 

From the fainting by L. F. Abbott in the National Portrait Gallery. 



POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE 273 

When the British Government found that the overtures for 
peace which it had made in the summer of 1797 could have no 
result, except on terms too humiliating to be considered, it at 
once turned its attention to the question of waging a distinct- 
ively offensive war, for effect in which co-operation was needed. 
The North of Europe was hopeless. Prussia persisted in the 
policy of isolation, adopted in 1795 by herself and a number 
of the northern German states. Kussia was quietly hostile to 
France, but the interference contemplated by the Empress 
Catherine had been averted by her death in 1796, and her 
successor, Paul, had shown no intention of undertaking it. 
There remained, therefore, the Mediterranean. In Italy, 
France stood face to face with Austria and Naples, and both 
these were dissatisfied with the action taken by her in the 
Peninsula itself and in Switzerland, besides sharing the appre- 
hension of most other governments from the disquiet attend- 
ing her political course. An advance into the Mediterranean 
was therefore resolved by the British Cabinet. 

This purpose disconcerted St. Vincent, who, besides his 
aversion from the war in general, was distinguished rather 
by tenacity and resolution in meeting difficulties and dangers, 
when forced upon him, than by the sanguine and enterprising 
initiative in offensive measures which characterized Nelson. 
Writing to the latter on the 8th of January, 1798, he says : 
"I am much at a loss to reconcile the plans in contemplation 
to augment this fleet and extend its operations, with the peace 
which Portugal seems determined to make with France, upon 
any terms the latter may please to impose ; because Gibraltar 
is an unsafe depot for either stores or provisions, which the 
Spaniards have always in their power to destroy, and the 
French keep such an army in Italy, that Tuscany and Naples; 
would fall a sacrifice to any the smallest assistance rendered 
to our fleet." In other words, the old question of supplies; 
still dominated the situation, in the apprehension of this; 
experienced officer. Yet, in view of the serious condition of 
things, and the probable defection of Portugal under the 
threats of France and Spain, to which he alludes, it seems, 
probable that the ministry were better advised, in their deter- 
mination to abandon a passive defence against an enemy 
unrelentingly bent upon their destruction. As Nelson said 

18 



274 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of a contingency not more serious : '' Desperate affairs require 
desperate remedies." 

However determined the British Government might be to 
act in the Mediterranean, some temporary perplexity must at 
first have been felt as to where to strike, until a movement of 
the enemy solved the doubt. In the early months of 1798 the 
Directory decided upon the Egyptian expedition under General 
Bonaparte, and, although its destination was guarded with 
admirable secrecy until long after the armament sailed, the 
fact necessarily transpired that preparations were being made 
on a most extensive scale for a maritime enterprise. The 
news soon reached England, as it did also Jervis at his station 
off Cadiz. Troops and transports were assembling in large 
numbers at the southern ports of France, in Genoa, Civita 
Vecchia, and Corsica, while a fleet of at least a dozen ships-of- 
the-liue was fitting out at Toulon. Various surmises were 
afloat as to the object, but all at this time were wide of the 
mark. 

On the 29th of April, less than three weeks after !N"elson 
left England, but before he joined the fleet, the Cabinet issued 
orders to St. Vincent to take such measures as he deemed 
necessary to thwart the projects of the Toulon squadron. It 
was left to his judgment whether to go in person with his 
whole fleet, or to send a detachment of not less than nine or 
ten ships-of-the-line under a competent flag-officer. If i)os- 
sible, the government wished him to maintain the blockade 
of Cadiz as it had been established since the Battle of St. 
Vincent ; but everything was to yield to the necessity of 
checking the sailing of the Toulon expedition, or of defeating 
it, if it had already started. A speedy reinforcement was 
promised, to supply the places of the ships that might be 
detached. 

Accompanying the public letter was a private one from the 
First Lord of the Admiralty, reflecting the views and anxieties 
of the Government. " The circumstances in which we now 
find ourselves oblige us to take a measure of a more decided 
and hazardous comjDlexion than we should otherwise have 
thought ourselves justified in taking; but when you are 
apprized that the appearance of a British squadron in the 
Mediterranean is a condition on which the fate of Europe 



BONAPARTE'S EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION 275 

may at this moment be stated to depend, you will not be sur- 
prised that we are disposed to strain every nerve, and incur 
considerable hazard in effecting it," This impressive, almost 
solemn, statement of the weighty and anxious character of 
the intended step, emphasizes the significance of the choice, 
which the First Lord indicates as that of the Government, of 
the officer upon whom such a charge is to devolve. " If you 
determine to send a detachment into the Mediterranean [in- 
stead of going in person with the fleet], I think it almost 
unnecessary to suggest to you the propriety of putting it 
under the command of Sir H. Kelson, whose acquaintance 
with that part of the world, as well as his activity and dis- 
position, seem to qualify him in a peculiar manner for that 
service." 

In concluding his letter, Earl Spencer summed up the 
reasons of the Government, and his own sense of the great 
risk attending the undertaking, for the conduct of which he 
designated Nelson. "I am as strongly impressed, as I have 
no doubt your Lordship will be, with the hazardous nature of 
the measure which we now have in contemplation ; but I 
cannot at the same time help feeling how much depends upon 
its success, and how absolutely necessary it is at this time to 
run some risk, in order, if possible, to bring about a new 
system of affairs in EurojDe, which shall save us all from 
being overrun by the exorbitant power of France. In this 
view of the subject, it is impossible not to perceive how much 
depends on the exertions of the great Continental powers; 
and, without entering further into what relates more par- 
ticularly to them, I can venture to assure you that no good 
will be obtained from them if some such measure as that 
now in contemplation is not immediately adopted. On the 
other hand, if, by our appearance in the Mediterranean, we 
can encourage Austria to come forward again, it is in the 
highest degree probable that the other powers will seize the 
ojiportunity of acting at the same time, and such a general 
concert be established as shall soon bring this great contest 
to a termination, on grounds less unfavorable by many 
degrees to the parties concerned than appeared likely a short 
time since." It may be added here, by way of comment, that 
the ups and downs of Xelson's pursuit, the brilliant victory 



276 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

at the Nile, and the important consequences flowing from it, 
not only fully justified this forecast, but illustrated aptly 
that in war, when a line of action has been rightly chosen, 
the following it up despite great risks, and with resolute 
perseverance through many disappointments, will more often 
than not give great success, — a result which may probably 
be attributed to the moral force which necessarily underlies 
determined daring and sustained energy. 

As has appeared, the Government's recommendation had 
been ratified beforehand by St. Vincent, in sending Nelson 
with three ships to watch Toulon. Upon receiving the 
despatches, on the 10th of May, the admiral's first step was 
to order Nelson to return at once to the fleet, to take charge 
of the detachment from the beginning. " You, and you only, 
can command the important service in contemplation ; there- 
fore, make the best of your way down to me." More urgent 
letters arriving from England, with news that a heavy rein- 
forcement had left there, he, on the 19th, hurried off a brig, 
"La Mutine," commanded by Hardy, Nelson's former lieu- 
tenant, to notify the rear-admiral that a squadron of ten ships 
would be sent to him shortly from before Cadiz ; and on the 
21st this detachment sailed, under the command of Captain 
Troubridge. 

The " Mutine " joined Nelson on the 5th of June. His 
little division had so far had more bad fortune than good. 
Leaving Gibraltar on the 8th of May, late in the evening, 
so that the easterly course taken should not be visible to 
either friend or enemy, he had gone to the Gulf of Lyons. 
There a small French corvette, just out of Toulon, was 
captured on the 17th, but, except in unimportant details, 
yielded no information additional to that already possessed. 
On the 19th Bonaparte sailed with all the vessels gathered 
in Toulon, directing his course to the eastward, to pass near 
Genoa, and afterwards between Corsica and the mainland 
of Italy. On the night of the 20th, in a violent gale of wind, 
the *' Vanguard " rolled overboard her main and mizzen top- 
masts, and later on the foremast went, close to the deck. 
The succession of these mishaps points rather to spars badly 
secured and cared for than to unavoidable accident. Fortu- 
nately, the " Orion " and " Alexander " escaped injury, and 



HIS FLAGSHIP DISMASTED 277 

the latter, on the following morning, took the "VangUcard" 
in tow, to go to Oristaii Bay, in Sardinia. The situation 
became extremely dangerous on the evening of the 22d, for, 
the wind falling light, the sail-power of the " Alexander'" was 
scarcely sufficient to drag both ships against a heavy westerly 
swell which was setting them bodily upon the Sardinian 
coast, then not far distant. Thinking the case hopeless, 
Nelson ordered the " Alexander " to let go the hawser; but 
Captain Ball begged permission to hold on, and finally suc- 
ceeded in saving the flagship, which, on the 23d, anchored 
with her consorts under the Islands of San Pietro, at the 
sputhern extremity of Sardinia. The governor of the place 
sent word that they must not remain, Sardinia being allied to 
France, but added that, as he had no power to force them out, 
they would doubtless do as they pleased ; and he supplied 
them with fresh provisions, — a line of conduct which illus- 
trates at once the restrictions imposed upon British operations 
in the Mediterranean by French insistence, and at the same 
time the readiness of the weaker states to connive at the 
evasion of them, other instances of which occurred during 
this period. By the united efforts of the division, four days 
sufficed to refit the "Vanguard" with jury-masts, and the 
three ships again sailed, on the 27th, for an appointed 
rendezvous, to seek the frigates, which had separated during 
and after the gale. 

This severe check, occurring at so critical a moment, — 
more critical even than Nelson knew, for he remained igno- 
rant of the French sailing for some days longer, — was in 
itself disheartening, and fell upon one whose native eagerness 
chafed painfully against enforced inaction and delay. His 
manner of bearing it illustrated both the religious character- 
istics, which the experience of grave emergencies tends to 
develop and strengthen in men of action, and the firmness of 
a really great man, never more signally displayed than under 
the pressure of calamity and suspense, such as he continually 
had to undergo. The exceptional brilliancy and decisiveness 
of his greater battles — the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar 
— obscure the fact that each of them was preceded by a weary 
period of strenuous uphill work, a steady hewing of his way 
through a tanglewood of obstacles, a patient endurance of dis- 



278 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

appointments, a display of sustained, undaunted resolution 
under discouragements, nobler far than even the moments of 
triumphant action, into which at last he joyfully emerges and 
freely exerts his extraordinary powers. " I trust," he wrote 
to St. Vincent, " my friends will tliink I bore my chastisement 
like a man. I hope it has made me a better officer, as I 
believe it has made me a better man. On the Sunday evening 
I thought myself in every respect one of the most fortunate 
men, to command such a squadron in such a place, and n\j 
pride was too great for man." To his wife he wrote in the 
same strain : "I ought not to call what has happened to the 
Vanguard by the cold name of accident ; I believe firmly that 
it was the Almighty's goodness, to check my consummaffe 
vanity." 

Vanity was rather a hard name to call the natural elation of 
a young admiral, intrusted with an unusually important ser- 
vice, and proud of his command ; but the providential inter- 
position worked directly to his advantage. The delays caused 
by the repairs to the " Vanguard," and by the subsequent 
necessity of seeking the separated frigates at the rendezvous 
appointed for such a case, made possible the junction of Trou- 
bridge, of whose approach Nelson was totally ignorant. On 
the 2d of June Sir James Saumarez mentions speaking a ship, 
which a few days before had seen eleven sail-of-the-line, sup- 
posed to be English. "We are at a loss what conjectures to 
put on this intelligence." Five days before this, May 28, a 
vessel out of Marseilles had informed them of Bonaparte's 
sailing with all his transports. Nelson would doubtless have 
pursued them at once, in conformity witli his instructions to 
ascertain the enemy's objects ; but for such operations, essen- 
tially those of a scouting expedition, the frigates were too 
necessary to be left behind. On the 4th of June he reached 
the rendezvous, and, not finding the frigates, waited. The 
next morning, by the arrival of the "Mvitine," he learned that 
he was to expect the reinforcement, which converted his 
division into a fleet, and enlarged his mission from one of 
mere reconnoissance to the duty of overtaking and destroying 
a great maritime expedition. 

Besides this good news, the " Mutine " brought word of 
another misfortune, more irretrievable than the loss of spars. 



JOINED BY TEOUBRIDGE 279 

She had fallen in with the frigates three days before, and the 
senior captain had told Hardy that he was going with them to 
Gibraltar, persuaded that the condition of the flagship, which 
he had seen, would necessitate her return to an arsenal for 
repairs. " I thought Hope would have known me better," 
commented Nelson, when he became aware of a step which 
materially affected, in fact probably entirely changed, the 
course of events, and most seriously embarrassed all his sub- 
sequent movements. This untimely and precipitate action, 
and his remark, illustrate conspicuously the differences be- 
tween men, and exemplify the peculiar energy and unrelax- 
ing forward impulse which eminently fitted Nelson for his 
present high charge. 

The inconvenience and danger arising from the frigates' 
departure was instantly felt. "Nothing," wrote Saumarez, 
"can equal our anxiety to fall in with the reinforcement. 
Our squadron has been, these two days, detached in all direc- 
tions, without falling in with them ; and there is strong 
reason to fear they think us returned to Gibraltar" — from 
Hope's reports. Such were the risks springing from mis- 
placed caution, more ruinous than the most daring venture, 
and which from beginning to end well-nigh wrecked the 
great attempt upon which the Admiralty, St. Vincent, and 
Nelson had staked so much. In further consequence, the 
line-of-battle ships became separated by stretching too far 
apart in their anxious care to find Troubridge, and when he 
joined the "Vanguard," on the 7th, the "Orion " and "Alex- 
ander " were not in sight. The French having so long a 
start, and there being now with him eleven seventy-fours. 
Nelson with characteristic promptness would not delay an 
instant. The fifty-gun ship " Leander," which had come with 
Troubridge, was directed to wait forty-eight hours for the two 
absentees, with a memorandum of the course about to be fol- 
lowed. Confident that single ships would be able to over- 
take a squadron whose route they knew, the admiral at once 
pushed on for Cape Corso, the north point of Corsica, intend- 
ing to pass between the island and Italy, seeking information 
as he went. The "Mutine" was all he had to replace the 
missing frigates. 

June 7th thus marks the beginning of a chase, which 



280 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ended only upon the 1st of August in the Battle of the Nile. 
During this miserable period of suspense and embarrassment, 
occasioned and prolonged beyond all reason or necessity by 
the want of lookout ships, the connecting and illuminating 
thread is the purpose of Nelson, at once clear and firm, to 
find the French fleet and to fight it the instant found. No 
other consideration draws his mind aside, except so far as it 
may facilitate the attainment and fulfilment of this one ob- 
ject. In this one light he sees all things. At the start he 
writes to St. Vincent : " You may be assured I will fight 
them the moment I can reach, be they at anchor or under 
sail." Three days later, he tells Sir William Hamilton : 
'' If their fleet is not moored in as strong a port as Toulon, 
nothing shall hinder me from attacking them." " Be they 
bound to the Antipodes," he says to Earl Spencer, "your 
Lordship may rely that I will not lose a moment in bringing 
them to action, and endeavour to destroy their transports." 
Such expressions are repeated with a frequency which proves 
the absolute hold the resolution had upon his mind. When 
obstacles occur to him, or are mentioned, they do not make 
room for the thought of not fighting to be entertained ; only 
Toulon suggests the idea of impossibility. He raises diffi- 
culties diligently enough, but it is only that they may be 
the better overcome, not that they may deter. All possible 
conditions are considered and discussed, but simply in order 
that the best fighting solution may be reached. The constant 
mental attitude is such that the man is unprepared to recede 
before any opposition ; he fortifies his mind beforehand with 
the best means of meeting and vanquishing it, but the at- 
tempt at least shall be made. " Thank God," he wrote at this 
moment, "I do not feel difficulties;" yet the avowal itself 
accompanies so plain a statement of his embarrassments as to 
show that his meaning is that they do not discourage. This 
characteristic appeared most strongly at Copenhagen, partly 
because the difficulties there were greatest, partly from the 
close contrast with a man of very different temper. 

Being entirely without intelligence as to the real object of 
the French, there was nothing to do but to follow upon their 
track, with eyes open for indications. They were known to 
have gone southerly, towards Naples and Sicily ; and these 



THE PURSUIT OF BONAPARTE 281 

two points, parts of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, had 
been mentioned by Jervis as probable destinations. The 
"Orion" and "Alexander" rejoined in two or three days, 
and on the 14th of June information, second-hand but prob- 
able, was obtained that on the 4th the French armament had 
been seen off the west end of Sicily, steering to the eastward. 
'•' If they pass Sicily," said Nelson in his letter to Spencer 
written the next day, " I shall believe they are going on their 
scheme of possessing Alexandria, and getting troops to India 
— a plan concerted with Tippoo Saib, by no means so diffi- 
cult as might at first view be imagined." Troubridge was 
now sent ahead in the " Mutine " to communicate with Sir 
William Hamilton, the British minister at Naples, and with 
Acton, the prime minister of that Kingdom. He took with 
him letters from the admiral, who wished to know what co- 
operation he might hope from the Court of Naples, in the 
matters of supplies, of frigates to act as lookouts, and of 
pilots for Sicilian waters. 

On the 17th the squadron hove-to ten miles off Naples, and 
Troubridge rejoined. The Neapolitan Government sent assur- 
ances of good wishes, and of hatred to the French ; supplies 
would be given under the rose, and Acton sent a written 
order to that effect, addressed to the governors of ports in the 
name of the King. Naples being at peace with France, assist- 
ance with ships could not be given, nor, to use the words of 
Nelson, "the smallest information of what was, or was likely 
to be, the future destination of the French armament. With 
this comfortable account I pushed for the Faro of Messina." 
Troubridge brought word, however, that the French fleet was 
off Malta, about to attack it, which served to give direction 
for the squadron's next move. 

After leaving Naples Nelson wrote strong and clear letters 
to Sir William Hamilton upon the existing conditions. Why 
should Naples stand in shivering hesitation about taking a de- 
cided step in support of Great Britain ? She had looked and 
prayed for the arrival of the fleet, as the one force competent 
to check the designs of the French. Sicily could be approached 
only by water, and the distance of Naples from Northern Italy 
rendered the control of the sea most advantageous, if not ab- 
solutely essential, to a French army attempting to hold the 



282 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

boot of the peninsula, Now the British fleet had come, in 
force adequate to neutralize the French Navy, and, in Nelson's 
belief, to defeat and destroy it, if properly supported. Did 
Naples expect to escape by a timid adherence to half measures, 
when by her notorious preference for the British she had al- 
ready gained the ill-will of the French ? *' The French know 
as well as you and I do, that their Sicilian Majesties called 
for our help to save them — even this is crime enough with 
the French." Safety — true safety — could be had only by 
strenuous and decisive action in support of Nelson's squadron. 
Did not the attack on Malta indicate a design upon Sicily ? 
"Were I commanding a fleet attending an army which is to 
invade Sicily, I should say to the general, ' If you can take 
Malta, it secures the safety of your fleet, transports, stores, 
&c., and insures your safe retreat [from Sicily] should that 
be necessary ; for if even a superior fleet of the enemy should 
arrive, before one week passes, they will be blown to leeward 
and you may pass with safety.' This would be my opinion. . . . 
I repeat it, Malta is the direct road to Sicily. '^ If the French 
are overtaken, he continues, and found in some anchorage, it 
can scarcely be so strong but that I can get at them, but there 
will be needed things which I have not, fire-ships, bomb- 
vessels, and gunboats, when one hour would either destroy or 
drive them out. Without such aid, the British- may be 
crippled in their attempt, and forced to leave the Mediter- 
ranean. In case of blockade — or necessity to remain for any 
reason — the fleet must have supplies, which only Naples can 
furnish. Failing these it must retire, and then Sicily and 
Naples are lost. Since, then, so much assistance must be 
given in time, why postpone now, when one strong blow 
would give instant safety ? Why should not his own motto, 
" I will not lose a moment in attacking them," apply as well 
to the policy of an endangered kingdom as of a British 
admiral ? 

If this reasoning and advice took more account of the exi- 
gencies of the British arms than of the difficulties of a weak 
state of the second order, dependent for action upon the sup- 
port of other nations, they were at least perfectly consonant 
to the principles and practice of the writer, wherever he him- 
self had to act. But Nelson could not expect his own spirit 



I 



THE PURSUIT OF BONAPARTE 283 

ill tlie King of tlie Two Sicilies. Even if the course suggested 
were the best for Naples under the conditions, it is the prop- 
erty of ordinary men, in times of danger, to see difficulties 
more clearly than advantages, and to shrink from steps which 
involve risk, however promising of success. The Neapolitan 
Government, though cheered by the appearance of the British 
fleet, had to consider danger also on the land side, where it 
relied upon the protection of Austria, instead of trusting man- 
fully to its own arms and the advantages of its position, re- 
mote from the centre of French power. Austria had pledged 
herself to support Naples, if invaded without just cause ; but 
it was not certain that she would interfere if the cause of at- 
tack was the premature admission of British ships into the 
ports of the kingdom, beyond the number specified in the still 
recent treaties with France. The Emperor was meditating 
Avar, in which he expected to assist Naples and to be assisted 
by her ; but he did not choose to be hurried, and might refuse 
aid if an outbreak were precipitated. 

Actually, what Naples did mattered little. Under some 
contingencies, such as Nelson was contemplating when he 
wrote his letter, it might have mattered much whether he re- 
ceived the abundant support of small armed vessels which he 
indicated ; but in the end supplies only were required, and 
those he had orders from Jervis to exact at the mouth of his 
cannon from all powers, — friends or neutrals, — Sardinia 
only excepted. The fleet passed the Straits of Messina on 
the 20th of June, and continued south, keeping close to the 
Sicilian shore in hope of information, until the 22d, when 
it was off Cape Passaro, the southeastern extremity of the 
island. There a Genoese brig was spoken, which had left 
Malta the previous day. From her Nelson learned that Malta 
had surrendered to the French on the 15th, a week before, 
which was correct ; but the information further stated, that, 
after landing a garrison, the expedition had sailed again on 
the 16th — it was thought for Sicily. This last news was un- 
true, whether by intention or not, for Bonaparte remained in 
Malta till the 19th ; but upon it Nelson had to act. Had he 
seen the captain of the stranger himself, he might have found 
out more, for he was a shrewd questioner, and his intellect 
was sharpened by anxiety, and by constant dwelling upon the 



284 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

elements of the intricate problem before liim ; but the vessel 
had been boarded by the " Mutine," three hours before, and 
was now beyond recall. 

At this season the winds in the Mediterranean prevail from 
the westward; therefore, with the six days' start the enemy 
was believed now to have, no time could be lost. Six days 
sufficed to carry the British squadron from its present position 
to Alexandria, which Nelson was already inclined to think the 
destination of the French. Yet, being dependent upon a wind 
then practically constant in direction, it would not do to yield 
a mile of ground, except upon a mature, if rapid, deliberation. 
Nelson's own mind was, by constant preoccupation, familiar 
beforehand with the bearings of the different conditions of 
any situation likely to occur, and with the probable inferences 
to be drawn ; his opinions Avere, so to say, in a constant state 
of formation and development, ready for instantaneous appli- 
cation to any emergency as it arose. But he had, besides, ex- 
ercised the same habit in the captains of the ships, by the 
practice of summoning them on board the flagship, singly or 
in groups ; !he slow movement of sailing vessels, particularly 
in the light summer weather of the Mediterranean, permitting 
such intercourse without materially affecting the progress of 
the fleet. Invitations or commands so to visit the flagship 
were common. " I have passed the day on board the Van- 
guard,"' notes Saumarez on one occasion, " having breakfasted 
and stayed to dinner with the admiral." " It was his practice 
during tlie whole of his cruise," Avrote Berry, the flag-captain, 
''whenever the weather and circumstances would permit, to 
have his captains on board the Vanguard, where he would 
fully develop to them his own ideas of the different and best 
modes of attack, in all possible positions." That such con- 
versations were not confined to tactical questions, but extended 
to what would now be called the strategy of the situation, is 
evident from allusions by Saumarez to the various surmises 
concerning the probable movements of the enemy. Nelson 
never yielded a particle of his responsibility, nor of his credit, 
but it is clear that such discussion would not only broaden his 
own outlook, but prepare his subordinates to give readier and 
sounder views upon any new conjuncture that might arise. 

He now summoned on board four captains " in whom I place 



THE PURSUIT OE BONAPARTE 285 

great coDfidence," Saumarez, Troubridge, — the two seniors, — 
Ball and Darby, stated the case, and received their opinions. 
These seem to have been given in writing,^ and from his letter 
to St. Vincent the results of the conference, as shown by his de- 
cision, may be summarized as follows. With the existing winds, 
it would be impossible for such a fleet as the enemy's to get to 
the westward. Had they aimed at Sicily, an object concern- 
ing which explicit disclaimers had been given by the French 
to the ISTeapolitan Government, some indication of their 
approach must have been known at Syracuse, the day before, 
when the British were off tliat city. Consequently, the expe- 
dition must have gone to the eastward. The size and nature 
of the armament must also be considered, — forty thousand 
troops, a dozen ships-of-the-line, besides a staff of scientific 
men, — all pointed to a great, distant, and permanent occupa- 
tion. The object might be Corfu, or to overthrow the exist- 
ing government of Turkey, or to settle a colony in Egypt. 
As between these, all equally possible, the last was the most 
direct and greatest menace to present British interests, and 
should determine his course. "If they have concerted a plan 
with Tippoo Saib, to have vessels at Suez, three weeks, at this 
season, is a common passage to the Malabar coast, where our 
India possessions would be in great danger." 

Such was the conclusion — how momentous at the moment 
can only be realized by those who will be at the pains to con- 
sider a man still young, with reputation brilliant indeed, but 
not established; intrusted with a great chance, it is true, but 
also with a great responsibility, upon which rested all his 
future. On slight, though decisive, preponderance of evi- 
dence, he was about to risk throwing away an advantage a 

1 The author is indebted to the present Lord De Saumarez for a copy of the 
opinion of Sir James Saumarez, written on board the "Vanguard" at this 
meeting: — • 

"The French fleet having left Malta six days ago, had their destination 
been the Island of Sicily there is reason to presume we should have obtained 
information of it yesterday off Syracuse, or the day before in coming through 
the Pharo of Messina — under all circumstances I think it most conducive to 
the good of His Majesty's service to make the best of our way for Alexandria, 
as the only means of saving our possessions in India, should the French arma- 
ment be destined for that counti-y. 

"Vanguard, at sea, 22d June 1798. James Saumarez." 



286 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

seaman must appreciate, that of being to windward of his 
enemy, — able to get at him, — the strategist's position of 
command. The tongues of envy and censure might well be 
— we now know that they were — busy in inquiring why so 
young an admiral had so high charge, and in sneering at his 
failure to find the enemy. " Knowing my attachment to you," 
wrote his old friend. Admiral Goodall, alongside whom he 
had fought under Hotham, " how often have I been ques- 
tioned : ' What is your favourite hero about ? The French 
fleet has passed under his nose,' &c., &c." Kelson was saved 
from fatal hesitation, primarily, by his singleness of purpose, 
which looked first to his country's service, to the thorough 
doing of the work given him to do, and only afterwards to the 
consequences of failure to his own fame and fortunes. At 
that moment the choice before him was either to follow out an 
indication, slight, but as far as it went clear, w^hich, though 
confessedly precarious, promised to lead to a great and decisive 
result, such as he had lately urged upon the King of Naples ; 
or to remain where he was, in an inglorious security, perfectly 
content, to use words of his own, that '' each day passed with- 
out loss to our side." To the latter conclusion might very 
well have contributed the knowledge, that the interests which 
the Cabinet thought threatened were certainly for the present 
safe. Broadly as his instructions were drawn, no word of 
Egypt or the East was specifically in them. Naples, Sicil}'', 
Portugal, or Ireland, such were the dangers intimated by 
Spencer and St. Vincent in their letters, and he was distinctly 
cautioned against letting the enemy get to the westward of 
him. He might have consoled himself for indecisive action, 
which procrastinated disaster and covered failure with the 
veil of nullity, as did a former commander of his in a gazetted 
letter, by the reflection that, so far as the anticipations of the 
ministry went, the designs of the enemy were for the time 
frustrated, by the presence of his squadron between them and 
the points indicated to him. 

But the single eye of jirinciple gained keener insight in 
this case by the practised habit of reflection, which came pre- 
pared, to the full extent of an acute intellect, to detect every 
glimmer of light, and to follow them to the point where they 
converged upon the true solution ; and both principle and 



THE PURSUIT OF BONAPARTE 281 

reflection were powerfully supported iu their final action by 
a native temperament, impatient of hesitations, of half meas- 
ures, certain that the annihilation of the French fleet, and 
nothing short of its annihilation, fulfilled that security of his 
country's interests in which consisted the spirit of his instruc- 
tions. His own words in self-defence, when for a moment it 
seemed as if, after all, he had blundered in the great risk he 
took, though rough in form, rise to the eloquence that speaks 
out of the abundance of the heart. "The only objection I 
can fancy to be started is, 'you should not have gone such 
a long voyage without more certain information of the 
enemy's destination:' my answer is ready — who was I to 
get it from? The governments of Naples and Sicily either 
knew not, or chose to keep me in ignorance. AVas I to 
wait patiently till I heard certain accounts ? If Egypt was 
their object, before I could hear of them they would have 
been in India. To do nothing, I felt, was disgraceful ; there- 
fore I made use of my understanding, and by it I ought to 
stand or fall." 

The destination of the enemy had been rightly divined, 
following out a course of reasoning outlined by Nelson a week 
before in his letter to Spencer ; but successful pursuit was 
bafiled for the moment by the wiliness of Bonaparte, who 
directed his vast armament to be steered for the south shore 
of Candia, instead of straight for Alexandria. Even this 
would scarcely have saved him, had Nelson's frigates been 
with the fleet. Immediately after the council, the admiral 
with his customary promptitude kept away for Egypt under 
all sail. ''I am just returned from on board the Admiral," 
Avrites Saumarez, ''and we are crowding sail for Alexandria; 
but the contrast to what we experienced yesterday is great 
indeed, having made sure of attacking them this morning. 
At present it is very doubtful whether we shall fall in Avith 
them at all, as we are proceeding upon the merest conjecture 
only, and not on any positive information. Some days must 
now elapse before we can be relieved from our cruel suspense ; 
and if, at the end of our journej^, we find we are upon a wrong 
scent, our embarrassment will be great indeed. Fortunately, I 
only act here en second ; but did the chief responsibility rest 
with me, I fear it would be more than my too irritable nerves 



288 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

would bear." Such was the contemporary estimate of an eye- 
witness, an officer of tried and singular gallantry and ability, 
who shared the admiral's perplexities and ambitions, though 
not his responsibility. His words portray justly the immen- 
sity of the burden Nelson bore. That, indeed, is the inevi- 
table penalty of command ; but it must be conceded that, when 
adequately borne, it should convey also an equal measure of 
renown. 

In the morning, before the consultation with the captains, 
three French frigates had been seen ; but Nelson, warned by 
the parting of the ''Orion" and "Alexander" a fortnight 
before, would not run the risk of scattering the squadron by 
chasing them. No time could now be lost, waiting for a 
separated ship to catch up. The circumstance of the fleet 
being seen by these frigates was quoted in a letter from Louis 
Bonaparte, who was with the expedition, to his brother 
Joseph, and was made the ground for comment upon the 
stupidity of the British admiral, who with this opportunity 
failed to find the armament. The criticism is unjust ; had 
the frigates taken to flight, as of course they would, the 
British fleet, if not divided, would certainly not be led towards 
the main body of the enemy. Concentration of purpose, sin- 
gleness of aim, was more than ever necessary, now that time 
pressed and a decision had been reached ; but the sneer of the 
French officer reproduces the idle chatter of the day in London 
streets and drawing-rooms. These, in turn, but echoed and 
swelled the murmurs of insubordination and envy in the navy 
itself, at the departure from the routine methods of officialism, 
by passing over the claims of undistinguished seniors, in favor 
of one who as yet had nothing but brilliant achievement, and 
yet more brilliant promise, to justify committing to him the 
most momentous charge that in this war had devolved on a 
British admiral. A letter from^one of the puisne lords of the 
Admiralty was read publicly on board the " Prince George," 
flagship of Sir William Parkei*, — the same who had the con- 
troversy with Nelson about the Battle of St. Vincent, — 
denouncing Lord St. Vincent in no very gentle terms for 
having sent so young a flag-officer.^ " Sir William Parker 
and Sir John Orde have written strong remonstrances against 
1 Clarke and M 'Arthur's Life of Nelson, vol. ii. p. 100. 



I 



THE PURSUIT OF BONAPARTE 289 

your coinmanding the detached squadron instead of them," 
wrote St. Vincent to Nelson. " I did all I could to prevent it, 
consistently with my situation, but there is a faction, fraught 
with all manner of ill-will to you, that, unfortunately for the 
two Baronets, domined over any argument or influence I could 
tise : they will both be ordered home the moment their letters 
arrive." It will be seen how much was at stake for Nelson 
personally in the issue of these weeks. Happy the man who, 
like him, has in such a case the clear light of duty to keep his 
steps from wavering! 

The night after Nelson made sail for Alexandria the two 
hostile bodies crossed the same tract of sea, on divergent 
courses ; but a haze covered the face of the deep, and hid them 
from each other. When the day dawned, they were no longer 
within range of sight; but had the horizon of the British fleet 
been enlarged by flanking frigates, chasing on either side, the 
immunity of the French from detection could scarcely have 
continued. For some days not a hundred miles intervened 
between these two foes, proceeding for the same port. On the 
26th, being two hundred and fifty miles from Alexandria, 
Nelson sent the " Mutine " ahead to communicate with the 
place and get information ; a single vessel being able to out- 
strip the progress of a body of ships, which is bound to the 
speed of its slowest member. On the 28th the squadron itself 
was off the town, when the admiral to his dismay found that 
not only the French had not appeared, but that no certain 
news of their destination was to be had. 

Preoccupied as his mind had been with the fear that the 
enemy had so far the start that their army would be out of 
the transports before he overtook them, the idea that he 
might outstrip them does not seem to have entered his head. 
Only three vessels had been spoken since Sicily was left 
behind, — two from Alexandria and one from the Archipel- 
ago ; but these knew nothing of the French, being doubtless, 
when met, ahead of the latter's advance. That Nelson again 
consulted with his captains seems probable — indeed almost 
certain, from casual mention ; but if so, their opinion as to the 
future course does not appear. The unremitting eagerness of 
his temperament, the singleness of his purpose, which saw the 
whole situation concentrated in the French fleet, had worked 

19 



290 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

together up to the present to bring him to the true strategic 
point just ahead of time ; although, bj no fault of his own, he 
had started near three weeks late.^ These two high qualities 
now conspired to mislead him by their own excess. '"'His 
active and anxious mind," wrote Captain Berry, " would not 
permit him to rest a moment in the same place ; he therefore 
shaped his course to the northward, for the coast of Cara- 
mania [in Asia Minor], to reach as quickly as possible some 
quarter where information could probably be obtained." 

To say that this was a mistake is j^erhaps to be wise only 
after the event. Had Nelson known that the French, when 
leaving Malta, had but three days' start of him, instead of six, 
as the Genoese had reported, he might have suspected the 
truth ; it is not wonderful that he failed to believe that he 
could have gained six days. The actual gain was but three ; 
for, departing practically at the same time from points 
equidistant from Alexandria, Bonaparte's armament appeared 
before that place on the third day after Nelson arrived. The 
troops were landed immediately, and the transports entered 
the port, thus making secure their escape from the British 
pursuit. The ships of war remained outside. 

Meanwhile Nelson, " distressed for the Kingdom of the 
Two Sicilies," was beating back to the westward against the 
wind which had carried him rapidly to the coast of Egypt. 
Rightly or wrongly, he had not chosen to wait at the point 
which mature reflection had indicated to him as tlie enemy's 
goal, and the best course that now occurred to him was to do 
with his fleet the exploring duty that frigates should have 
done. " No frigates,''^ he wrote to Sir William Hamilton ; 
" to which has been, and may again be, attributed the loss of 
the French fleet." On his return he kept along the northern 
shore of the Mediterranean, passing near Candia ; but, though 
several vessels were spoken, he only gathered from them that 
the French were not west of Sicily, nor at Corfu. On the 
19th of July, he anchored the fleet at Syracuse, having, to 
use his own words, "gone a round of six hundred leagues with 
an expedition incredible," and yet " as ignorant of the situa- 
tion of the enemy as I was twenty-seven days ago." 

1 That is, counting from May 19, when Bonaparte left Toulon, to June 7, 
when Troubridge's squadron joined, and pursuit began. 



I 



THE PURSUIT OF BONAPARTE 291 

At Syracuse fresh disappointments awaited him, which only 
the indomitable single-mindedness and perseverance of the 
man prevented from becoming discouragements. The minister 
at Naples had sent despatches to await him at Cape Passaro ; 
when he sent for these, thirsty for news about the French, 
they had been returned to Naples. The governor of the port, 
despite Acton's assurances to Troubridge, made difficulties 
about the admission of so many ships, and about supplying 
water, which they absolutely required. This Nelson resented, 
with angry contempt for the halting policy of the weak king- 
dom. "I have had so much said about the King of Naples' 
orders only to admit three or four of the ships of our fleet into 
his ports, that T am astonished. I understood that private 
orders, at least, would have been given for our free admission. 
If we are to be refused supplies, pray send me by many ves- 
sels an account, that I may in good time take the King's fleet 
to Gibraltar. Our treatment is scandalous for a great nation 
to put up with, and the King's flag is insulted at every friendly 
port we look at." " I wish to know your and Sir William's 
plans for going down the Mediterranean," he wrote to Lady 
Hamilton, " for, if we are to be kicked in every port of the 
Sicilian dominions, the sooner we are gone the better. Good 
God ! how sensibly I feel our treatment. I have only to pray 
I may find the French and throw all my vengeance on them." 

These words show the nervous exasperation superinduced 
by the tremendous strain of official anxiety and mortified 
ambition ; for the governor's objections were purely formal 
and perfunctory, as was the Court's submission to the French. 
" Our present wants," he admitted at the same writing, " have 
been most amply supplied, and every attention has been paid 
us." Years afterwards Nelson spoke feelingly of the bitter 
mental anguish of that protracted and oft-thwarted pursuit. 
"Do not fret at anything," he told his friend Troubridge; 
'•' I wish I never had, but my return to Syracuse in 1798, 
broke my heart, which on any extraordinary anxiety now 
shows itself, be that feeling pain or pleasure." " On the 18th 
I had near died, with the swelling of some of the vessels of 
the heart. More people, perhaps, die of broken hearts than 
we are aware of." But the firmness of his purpose, the clear- 
ness of his convictions, remained unslackened and unclouded. 



292 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

" What a situation am I placed in ! " he writes, when he finds 
Hamilton's despatches returned. *' As yet I can learn nothing 
of the enemy. You Avill, I am sure, and so will our country, 
easily conceive what has passed in my anxious mind ; but I 
have this comfort, that I have no fault to accuse myself of. 
This bears me up, and this only." " Every moment I have to 
regret the frigates having left me," he tells St. Vincent. 
''Your lordship deprived yourself of frigates to make mine 
certainly the first squadron in the world, and I feel that I 
have zeal and activity to do credit to your appointment, and 
yet to be unsuccessful hurts me most sensibly. But if they 
are above water, I will find them out, and if possible bring 
them to battle. You have done your part in giving me so fine 
a fleet, and I hope to do mine in making use of them." 

In five days the squadron had filled with water and again 
sailed. Satisfied that the enemy were somewhere in the 
Levant, Nelson now intended a deliberate search for them — 
or rather for their fleet, the destruction of which was the 
crucial object of all his movements. "It has been said," he 
wrote to Hamilton, "that to leeward of the two frigates I saw 
off Cape Passaro was a line-of-battle ship, with the riches of 
Malta on board, but it was the destruction of the enemy, not 
riches for myself, that I was seeking. These w^ould have 
fallen to me if I had had frigates, but except the ship-of-the- 
line, I regard not all the riches in this world." A plaintive 
remonstrance against his second departure was penned by the 
Keapolitan prime minister, which depicts so plainly the com- 
monplace view of a military situation, — the apprehensions 
of one to whom immediate security is the great object in war, 
— that it justifies quotation, and comparison Avith the clear 
intuitions, and firmly grasped principle, Avhich placed Nelson 
always, in desire, alongside the enemy's fleet, and twice 
carried him, at every risk, to the end of the Mediterranean to 
seek it. " We are now in danger of a war, directly on Admiral 
Nelson's account ; you see fairly our position ; will Admiral 
Nelson run to the Levant again vithout knnwinr/ for ceHnin 
the position of the French, and leave the Two Sicilies exposed 
in these moments ? Buonaparte has absconded himself, but 
in any port he has taken securitys not to be forced. God 
knows where he is, and whether we shall not see him asjain in 



THE PURSUIT OF BONAPARTE 293 

a few days, if we do uot hear of what a course he has taken. 
I present all this to your consideration." To this letter, 
which oddly enough was written on the very day the Battle 
of the Nile was fought, Nelson might well have replied then, 
as he did in terms a year afterwards, •' The best defence for 
His Sicilian Majesty's dominions is to place myself alongside 
the French fleet." 

The fleet left Syracuse on the 25th of July, just one week 
before the discovery of the enemy in Aboukir Bay put an 
end to Nelson's long suspense. The course was first shaped 
for the southern capes of the Morea, and on the 28th Trou- 
bridge was sent into the Gulf of Korou for information. He 
returned within three hours, with the news that the French 
had been seen four weeks before from the coast of Candia, 
and were then steering southeast. This intelligence was 
corroborated by a vessel spoken the same day. Southeast, 
being nearly dead before the prevailing wind, was an almost 
certain clue to the destination of an unwieldy body which 
could never regain ground lost to leeward ; so, although Nelson 
now learned that some of his missing frigates had also been 
seen recently off Candia, he would waste no time looking for 
them. It may be mentioned that these frigates had appeared 
off the anchorage of the French fleet, and had been recognized 
by it as enemies ; but, so far from taking warning from the 
incident, the French admiral was only confirmed by it in a 
blind belief that the British feared to attack. Immediately 
after Troubridge's return, the fleet bore np under all sail, and 
at 2.45 in the afternoon of the 1st of August, 1798, the mast- 
head lookout of the " Zealous" discovered the long-sought-for 
enemy, lying in Aboukir Bay, on the coast of Egypt, fifteen 
miles east of Alexandria. 

Suspense was ended, but Nelson's weightiest responsibility 
had yet to be met. The enemy was still so far distant that he 
coidd not be reached till near nightfall, and it was possible that 
not only would the battle be fought in the dark, but that some 
at least of the ships would not have daylight to take their 
positions. The consequent difficulty and risk was in any 
event great; but in this case the more so, because the ground 
was unknown to every officer in the fleet. The only chart of it 
in possession of the British was a rude sketch lately taken 



294 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

out of a prize. There was no time now for calling captains 
together, nor for forming plans of action. Then appeared 
conspicuousl}' the value of that preparedness of mind, as well 
as of purpose, Avhich at bottom was the greatest of Nelson's 
claims to credit. Much had been received by him from 
Nature, — gifts which, if she bestows them not, man strug- 
gles in vain to acquire by his own efforts ; but the care which 
he took in fitting himself to use those gifts to their utmost 
capacity is his own glory. The author of the first full narra- 
tive of these eventful weeks. Captain Berry, than whom no 
man had larger occasion to observe Nelson's moods, used his 
capitals well when he wrote, " The admiral viewed the 
obstacles with the eye of a seaman determined ox i^TTACK." 
It was not for him, face to face with opportunity, to hesitate 
and debate whether he would be justified in using it at once. 
But this preparation of purpose might have led only to a 
great disaster, had it not received guidance from a richly 
stored intellect, which had pondered probable conditions so 
exhaustively that proper direction could be at once imparted 
and at once understood. The French admiral, indeed, by his 
mistaken dispositions had delivered himself into the hands of 
his enemy ; but that might not have availed had that enemy 
hesitated and given time, or had he not instantly compre- 
hended the possibilities of the situation with a trained glance 
which had contemplated them long before. "By attacking 
the enemy's van and centre, the wind blowing directly along 
their line, I was enabled to throw what force I pleased on a 
few ships. This plan my friends readily conceived by the 
signals." ^ 

It was, therefore, no fortuitous coincidence that the battle 
was fought on a plan preconcerted in general outline, though 
necessarily subject to particular variations in detail. Not 
only had many situations been discussed, as Berry tells us, 
butnew signals had been inserted in the signal-book to enable 
the admiral's intentions to be quickly understood. To pro- 
vide for the case of the enemy being met at sea, the force had 
been organized into three squadrons, — a subdivision of com- 
mand which, while surrendering nothing of the admiral's in- 
itiative, much facilitated the application of his plans, by 
1 Nelson to Lord Howe. 



DISPOSITIONS FOR BATTLE 295 

committing the execution of major details to the two senior 
captains, Saumarez and Troubridge, each wielding a group of 
four ships. Among the provisions for specific contingencies 
was one that evidently sprang from the report that the 
enemy's fleet numbered sixteen or seventeen of the line, — 
an impression which arose from there being in, it four Vene- 
tian ships so rated, which were not, however, fit for a place in 
the line. In that case Nelson proposed to attack, ship for 
shii), the rear thirteen of the enemy. That he preferred, 
when possible, to throw two ships on one is evident enough — 
the approaching battle proves it ; but when confronted with a 
force stronger, numerically, than his own, and under way, he 
provides what was certainly the better alternative. He en- 
gages at once the attention of as many ships as possible, con- 
fident that he brings against each a force superior to it, owing 
to the general greater efficiency of British ships over French 
of that date, and especially of those in his own squadron, 
called by St. Vincent the elite of the Navy. 

The position of the French fleet, and the arrangements 
made by its commander, Admiral Brueys, must now be given, 
for they constitute the particular situation against which 
Nelson's general plan of attack was to be directed. Consider- 
ing it impracticable for the ships-of-the-line to enter the port 
of Alexandria, Bruej^s had taken the fleet on the 8th of July 
to their present anchorage. Aboukir Bay begins at a promon- 
tory of the same name, and, after curving boldly south, 
extends eastward eighteen miles, terminating at the Rosetta 
mouth of the Nile. From the shore the depth increases very 
gradually, so that water enough for ships-of-the-line was not 
found till three miles from the coast. Two miles northeast of 
the promontory of Aboukir is Aboukir Island, since called 
Nelson's, linked with the point by a chain of rocks. Outside 
the island, similar rocks, with shoals, prolong this foul ground 
under water to seaward, constituting a reef dangerous to a 
stranger approaching the bay. This barrier, however, broke 
the waves from the northwest, and so made the western part 
of the bay a fairly convenient summer roadstead. The French 
fleet was anchored there, under the shelter of the island and 
rocks, in an order such that "the wind blew nearly along 
the line." Its situation offered no local protection against 



296 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

an enemy's approach, except that due to ignorance of the 
ground. 

It was therefore Brueys's business to meet this defect of 
protection by adequate dispositions ; and this he failed to do. 
Numerically his force was the same as Nelson's ; but, while 
the latter had only seventy-fours, there were in the French 
fleet one ship of one hundred and twenty guns, and three 
eighties. In a military sense, every line divides naturally 
into three parts, — the centre, and the two ends, or flanks ; 
and it is essential that these should so far support one another 
that an enemy cannot attack any two in superior force, while 
the third is unable to assist. Shallow water, such as was 
found in Aboukir Bay, if properly utilized, will prevent a 
flank being turned, so that an enemy can get on both sides of 
the ships there, or otherwise concentrate upon them, as by 
enfilading ; and if, in addition, the ships are anchored close to 
each other, it becomes impossible for two of the attacking 
force to direct their fire upon one of the defence, without 
being exposed to reprisals from those next astern and ahead. 
These evident precautions received no illustration in the ar- 
rangements of Admiral Brueys. The general direction of his 
line was that of the wind, from northwest to southeast, with a 
very slight bend, as shown in the diagram. The leading — 
northwestern — ship was brought close to the shoal in thirty 
feet of water, but not so close as to prevent the British pass- 
ing round her, turning that flank ; and there were between 
the successive ships intervals of five hundred feet, through 
auy one of which an enemy could readily pass. Brueys had 
very properly accumulated his most powerful vessels at the 
centre. The flagship "Orient," of one hundred and twenty 
guns, was seventh in the order; next ahead and astern of her 
were, respectively, the ''Franklin" aud the "Tonnant," each 
of eighty. By a singular misconception, however, he had 
thought that any attack would fall upon the rear — the lee 
flank ; and to this utter misapi3rehension of the exposed points 
it Avas owing that he there placed his next heaviest ships. 
Nelson's fore-determined onslaught upon the van accordingly 
fell on the weakest of the French vessels. 

Such was the French order of battle. The proceedings of 
the British fleet, under its leader, show an instructive combi- 













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BATTLE OF THE NILE 297 

nation of rapidity and caution, of quick comprehension of the 
situation, with an absence of all precipitation ; no haste in- 
compatible with perfect carefulness, no time lost, either by 
hesitation or by preparations postponed. When the enemy 
were first discovered, two ships, the " Alexander " and 
"Swiftsure," were a dozen miles to leeward, having been 
sent ahead on frigates' duty to reconnoitre Alexandria. This 
circumstance prevented their joining till after the battle 
began and night had fallen. At the same moment the 
"Cnlloden" was seven miles to windward. She was sig- 
nalled to drop the prize she was towing, and to join the fleet. 
To this separation was due that she went aground. The 
remaining ten ships, which had been steering about -east, 
hauled sharp on the wind to enable them to weather with 
ample allowance the shoal off Aboukir Island. It was blowing 
a whole-sail breeze, too fresh for the lighter canvas; the 
royals were furled as soon as close-hauled. As the French 
situation and dispositions developed to the view, signals were 
made to prepare for battle, to get ready to anchor by the stern, 
and that it was the admiral's intention to attack the van and 
centre of the enemy. The captains had long been forewarned 
of each of these possibilities, and nothing more was needed to 
convey to them his general plan, which was intrusted to them 
individually to carry out as they successively came into action. 
At about half-past five signal was given to form line of 
battle. This, for the ships of the day, was a single column, 
in which they were ranged ahead and astern of each other, 
leaving the broadside clear. As they came abreast the shoal, 
Nelson hailed Captain Hood, of the " Zealous," and asked if 
he thought they were yet far enough to the eastward to clear 
it, if they then headed for the enemy. Hood replied that he 
did not know the ground, but was in eleven fathoms, and 
would, if the admiral allowed, bear up and sound with the 
lead, and would not bring the fleet into danger. This was 
done. Hood leading all the fleet except the " Goliath," Captain 
Foley, which kept ahead, on the lee bow of the "Zealous." 
No close shaving was done, however, at this critical turn ; 
and it is that steady deliberation, combined with such parsi- 
mony of time in other moments, which is most impressive in 
Nelson. So few realize that five minutes are at once the most 



298 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

important and the least important of considerations. Thus 
the British passed so much beyond the island and the shoal, 
before keeping away, that, as the long column swept round to 
head for the French van, the ships turned their port broad- 
sides to the enemy, and were steering southwesterly when 
they finally ran down. "The English admiral," wrote the 
French second in command, "without doubt had experienced 
pilots on board ; he hauled well round all dangers." 

The "Goliath" still leading the fleet, followed closely by 
the " Zealous," the flagship Avas dropped to sixth in the order, 
— Nelson thus placing himself so that he could see what the 
first five ships accomplished, while retaining in his own hands 
the power to impart a new direction to the remaining five of 
those then with him, should he think it necessaiy. Captain 
Foley had formed the idea that the French would be less 
ready to fight on the inshore side, and had expressed his in- 
tention to get inside them, if practicable. Sounding as he 
went, he passed round the bows of the leading vessel, the 
" Guerrier," on the inner bow of which he intended to place 
himself ; but the anchor hung, and the " Goliath " brought up 
on the inner quarter of the " Conquerant," the second ship. 
The " Zealous," following, anchored where Foley had pur- 
posed, on the bow of the " Guerrier ; " and the next three 
ships, the " Orion," " Theseus," and " Audacious," also placed 
themselves on the inner side of the French line. 

The two leading French vessels were at once crushed. All 
the masts of the " Guerrier," although no sail was on them, 
went overboard within ten minutes after she was first attacked, 
while the " Conquerant " was receiving the united broadsides 
of the "Goliath" and the "Audacious," — the latter raking. 
Nelson therefore placed the " Vanguard " on the outer side, 
and within pistol-shot, of the third French ship, the "Spartiate," 
which was already engaged on the other side by the " Theseus," 
but at much longer range. His example was of course followed 
by those succeeding him — the seventh and eighth of the 
British engaging the fourth and fifth of the French, which were 
already receiving part of the fire of the " Orion " and " Theseus " 
on the inner side — the latter having ceased to play upon the 
"Spartiate" for fear of hitting the "Vanguard." Thus five 
French ships were within half an hour in desperate conflict 



i 



Wind 
N.N.W. 



B»^2 





FrRST STAOE 

of the 

BATTLE OF THE NILE 



/ Cuerrier 

2. Conguerdnt 

3. Spdiiiate 

4. AquJion 

5. Peuple Souverdin 

6. Frdnhlin 

7. Orient 

8. Tonnant 

9. Heureux 

10. Mercwe 

11. Cuillaume Tell 

12. Ce'ne'reux 

13. Timole'on 



A. Zealous 
6. Audacious 

C. Coliatf} 

D. T/ieseus 
£. l/anguari] 
F Minotaur 
6. Defence 
H. Orion 

I. Bellerophon 
J. Mdjestic 




BATTLE OF THE NILE 299 

with eight British, while their consorts to leeward looked 
helplessly on. 

The ninth and tenth of Nelson's fleet were less fortunate, 
owing to the envelope of smoke and the growing darkness, 
which now obscvired the scene. The " Bellerophon," missing 
the sixth French vessel, the " Franklin," brought up abreast 
the " Orient," whose force was double her own, and which had 
no other antagonist. The " Majestic," groping her way, ran 
into the ninth French, the '' Heureux," where for some 
moments she hung in a position of disadvantage and had her 
captain killed. Then swinging clear, she anchored on the bow 
of the next astern, the " Mercure," and there continued a 
deadly and solitary action. Owing to the circumstances men- 
tioned, the loss of each of these ships was greater, by fifty 
per cent, than that of any other of the British fleet. The 
movements so far described, and the resultant fighting, may 
be styled the first stage of the battle. Concerning it may be 
remarked the unswerving steadiness, rapidity, and yet sound 
judgment, with which all the movements were executed; and 
further, that not only was the first direction of the attack 
that prescribed by Nelson's signal, but that the second, 
initiated by his own ship, was also imparted by him. The 
incident of passing round the " Guerrier," and inside of the 
line, is a detail only, although one which cannot be too highly 
praised. " The van ship of the enemy being in five fathom," 
wrote Captain Hood, "I expected the Goliath and Zealous to 
stick fast on the shoal every moment, and did not imagine we 
should attempt to pass Avithin her." It is difficult to exagger- 
ate the coolness, intrepidity, and seamanlike care of Captain 
Foley, to whom is to be attributed, perhaps, the whole con- 
ception, and certainly the entire merit of the execution ; but 
they no more detract from Nelson's honors than does the 
distinguished conduct of the other captains. 

The battle had begun a little after half-past six, the 
" Guerrier's " masts falling at sundown, which was quarter 
before seven. It continued under the conditions already given 
until past eight o'clock — none of the ships engaged shifting 
her position for some time after that hour. It was, appar- 
ently, just before the second act of the drama opened with the 
arrival of the remaining ships — the ''Alexander," "Swift- 



300 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

sure," and " Leander " — that Nelson was severely wounded ; 
but the precise moment has not been recorded. He was struck 
upon the upper part of the forehead by a flying piece of iron, 
the skin, which was cut at right angles, hanging down over 
his face, covering the one good eye, and, with the profuse flow 
of blood, blinding him completely. He exclaimed, "I am 
killed ! Kemeraber me to my wife ! " and was falling, but 
Captain Berry, who stood • near, caught him in his arms. 
When carried below to the cockpit, the surgeon went immedi- 
ately to him, but he refused to be attended before his turn 
arrived, in due succession to the injured lying around him. 

The pain was intense, and Nelson felt convinced that his 
hurt was mortal ; nor could he for some time accept the sur- 
geon's assurances to the contrary. Thus looking for his end, 
he renewed his farewell messages to Lady Nelson, and 
directed also that Captain Louis of the '' Minotaur," which lay 
immediately ahead of the "Vanguard," should be hailed to 
come on board, that before dying he might express to him his 
sense of the admirable support given by her to the flagship. 
"Your support," said he, "has prevented me from being 
obliged to haul out of the line." ^ From the remark it may 
be inferred that the French " Aquilon," their fourth ship, 
which became the " Minotaur's " antagonist, had for a measur- 
able time been able to combine her batteries with those of the 
" Spartiate " upon the " Vanguard," and to this was probably 
due that the loss of the latter was next in severity to that of 
the "Majestic" and of the " Bellerophon." The inference is 
further supported by the fact that the worst slaughter in the 
"Vanguard" was at the forward guns, those nearest the 
" Aquilon." 

After his wound was bound up, Nelson was requested by 
the surgeon to lie quiet ; but his preoccupation with the events 
of the evening was too great, and his responsibility too im- 
mediate, to find relief in inactivity, — the physician's panacea. 
He remained below for a while, probably too much jarred for 
physical exertion ; but his restlessness sought vent by begin- 
ning a despatch to the Admiralty. The secretary being too 
agitated to write. Nelson tried to do so himself, and it was 
characteristic that the few lines he was then able to trace, 
1 G. Lathom Browne's Life of Nelson, p. 198. 




Second Stage of the Battle of the Nile. 
Concentration op British Reserve on the French Centre. 



BATTLE OF THE NILE 301 

blinded, suffering, and confused, expressed that dependence 
upon the Almighty, habitual with him, which illustrated a 
temperament of so much native energy and self-reliance, and 
is more common, probably, among great warriors than in any 
other class of men of action. This first outburst of emotion, 
excited in him by the tremendous event wrought by his 
hands, was identical in spirit, and not improbably was clothed 
in the same words, as those with which began the despatch 
actually sent : " Almighty God has blessed His Majesty's 
arms." 

While Nelson lay thus momentarily disabled, important 
events were transpiring, over which, however, he could have 
exerted no control. It has been mentioned that the " Culloden " 
was seven miles to the northward and westward of the fleet, 
when the French were first discovered. Doing her best, it 
was impossible to reach the main body before it stood down 
into action, and the day had closed when the ship neared the 
shoal. Keeping the lead going, and proceeding with caution, 
though not with the extreme care which led Hood and Nelson 
to make so wide a sweep, Troubridge had the mishap to strike 
on the tail of the shoal, and there the ship stuck fast, pound- 
ing heavily until the next morning. The fifty-gun ship 
" Leander " went to her assistance, as did the brig " Mutine," 
but all efforts to float her proved vain. Meanwhile the 
"Alexander" and "Swiftsure" were coming up from the 
southwest, the wind being so scant that they could barely pass 
to windward of the reef, along whose northwestern edge they 
were standing. The " Alexander," in fact, was warned by the 
lead that she was running into danger, and had to tack. As 
they approached, Troubridge, by lantern and signal, warned 
them off the spot of his disaster, thus contributing to save 
these ships, and, by removing doubt, accelerating their entrance 
into action. As they rounded the stranded " Culloden," the 
" Leander " was also dismissed from a hopeless task, and 
followed them to the scene of battle. 

The delay of the two seventy-fours, though purely fortui- 
tous, worked in furtherance of Nelson's plan, and resulted, 
practically, in constituting them a reserve, which was brought 
into play at a most auspicious moment. The " Bellerophon," 
crushed by the preponderating weight of the "Orient's" 



302 THE LITE OF NELSON 

battery, had just cut her cable and worn out of action, with 
the loss of forty-nine killed and one hundred and forty-eight 
wounded, out of a total of five hundred and ninety men. Her 
foremast alone was then standing, and it fell immediately 
after. The firing, which had been animated from the French 
left ^towards the centre, now slackened around the latter, at 
the point where the " Orient " and her next ahead, the 
" Franklin," were lying. For this spot, therefore, the cap- 
tains of the two fresh British ships steered. The '' Swiftsure," 
Captain Hallowell, anchored outside the enemy's line, abreast 
the interval separating the "Orient" and the "Franklin," 
between which he divided his fire. The "Alexander," Cap- 
tain Ball, passed through the line, astern of the " Orient," 
and anchored close on her inner quarter. Just at this time 
a shot cut the cable of the " Peuple Souverain," next ahead 
of the " Franklin," and she drifted out of her place to abreast 
the latter ship, ahead of which a wide gap of a thousand feet 
was thus left. Into this the " Leander " glided, fixing herself 
with great skill to rake at once the "Franklin" and the 
" Orient." 

These two French ships had already been much battered, 
and the " Franklin " was still receiving part of the fire of the 
" Orion," Sir James Saumarez, on her inner bow, as well as 
that of the "Defence," hitherto engaged by the "Peuple 
Souverain." This accumulation upon them of three fresh 
ships would doubtless have proved irresistible, even if a yet 
more dire calamity had not supervened. The new-comers 
took their positions soon after eight, and a little before nine 
a fire was observed on the poop of the " Orient." The Brit- 
ish captains, seeing the flames fighting on their behalf, re- 
doubled their efforts, directing their aim especially \ipon the 
scene of the conflagration, and thereby thwarting all attempt 
to extinguish it. The blaze spread rapidly, upward through 
the tarred rigging and the masts, downward to the lower 
decks, where her heroic crew, still ignorant of the apj)roach- 
ing doom, labored incessantly at their guns. As the sublime 
sight forced itself upon the eyes of all about, friends and 
enemies alike busied themselves with precautions for their 
own safety in the coming catastrophe. The ships to wind- 
ward held on ; those to leeward for the most part veered or 



BATTLE OF THE NILE 303 

slipped their cables, the " Alexander " fiercely refusing to do 
so till assured that the "Orient's" destruction was inevi- 
table. Captain Berry went below to report to the admiral 
this appalling climax to the night's work, and to his own 
long-sustained efforts iu chase and battle, Nelson demanded 
to be led on deck, where he gave orders that the only boat 
still in condition for use should be sent with the " Van- 
guard's " first lieutenant, to help save the unhappy crew. 
He then remained watching the progress of the fire. At 
quarter before ten the " Orient " blew up. At this time the 
moon rose, and from her tranquil path looked down, through 
the clear Egyptian air, upon the scene of devastation. 

Nelson was now persuaded to go to bed, but he neither got 
nor sought repose of mind. Throughout the night, and in 
the early morning, messages went from him to various ships 
to take this or that step, to garner in the fruits of the victory 
yet unculled. The fleet responded somewhat spasmodically, 
if not inadequately, to these calls. Men in truth were worn 
out with labor and excitement. "My people were so ex- 
tremely jaded," wrote Captain Miller of the "Tlieseus," who 
obeyed a summons to move, "that as soon as they had hove 
our sheet anchor up they dropped under the capstan bars, 
and were asleep in a moment in every sort of posture, having 
been then working at their fullest exertion, or fighting, for 
near twelve hours." Nelson, in common with other great 
leaders, could nut be satisfied with any but the utmost results. 
To quote again his words of years gone by: "Had ten ships 
been taken and the eleventh escaped, we being able to get at 
her, I should never consider it well done." His idea. Captain 
Berry tells us, was first to secure the victory, and then to 
make the most of it, as circumstances might permit. The 
expression is so luminous that it can scarcely be doubted that 
the words are substantially those of the admiral himself.^ 

1 An interesting example of the illuminating eflect of a sound maxim upon 
different phases of a man's life and actions, and one illustrative of the many- 
sidedness of this motto of Nelson's, occurs later in his career, and not long 
before his death. When the frigates " Phcebe" and " Amazon" were ordered 
to cruise before Toulon in October, 1804, " Lord Nelson gave Captains Capel 
and Parker several injunctions, in case they should get an opportunity of 
attacking two of the French frigates, which now got under way more fre- 
f^uently. The principal one was, that they should not each single out and 



304 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



First, the great combination, which necessarily for the mo- 
ment neglects a part of the enemy in order to disconcert and 
overwhelm the rest ; afterwards, the unremitting pursuit, 
Avhich completes the triumph. 

It was therefore perfectly characteristic of Nelson's habit 
of thought, and not merely an egotistic expression of baseless 
discontent with others, that he avowed his dissatisfaction 
with the results of the night's Avork, stupendous and wholly 
unparalleled as they were. But his own condition, pros- 
trated and with disabled head, was doubly typical of the state 
of his fleet after the " Orient " blew up. Not only were men 
overcome with fatigue, — from weariness as great men have 
been aroused by the inspiring call of a trusted chief, — but 
the guiding head of the body was dazed and incapacitated ; 
that was gone which alone could sustain energy and give 
unity to movement. Although Nelson indulged in no meta- 
phorical allusions, he had this figure of the head clearly 
enough in his mind, when he wrote four weeks later to Lord 
Minto : " I regret that one escaped, and I think, if it had 
pleased God that I had not been wounded, not a boat would 
have escaped to have told the tale ; but do not believe that 
any individual in the fleet is to blame. In my conscience, 
I believe greater exertions could not have been, and I only 
mean to say, that if my experience could in person have 
directed ^ those exertions of individuals, there Avas every 
appearance that Almiglity God would have continued to bless 
my endeavours." This opinion he reiterated to Lord Howe, 
even more positively, after four months' longer reflection, in 
a letter dated January 8, 1799; and, whether the result 
would or would not have equalled his belief, the traces are 
clear that what was wanted, during the remainder of that 
eventful night, was just that concord of action which the 
head imparts to the members. Messages went from ship to 
ship, captains consulted together and proposed to move to- 



attack an opponent, but ' that both should endeavour together to take one 
frigate ; if successful, chase the other ; but if you do not take the second, 
still you have won a victory, and your country will gain a frigate.' " (Philli- 
more's Last of Nelson's Captains, p. 122.) When summarized, this again 
is — Victory first ; afterwards the results, as circumstances may permit. 
^ Author's italics. 



BATTLE OF THE NILE 305 

gether, and did move separately ; there was no lack of good- 
will, nor, as Nelson says, of exertion ; but men were not 
quite snve of what the other man would do, and felt no 
authority to command him ; and there was hesitation over 
risks, and cautious delays about soundings and shaky spars, 
which, the author is persuaded, would not have deterred 
Nelson in such conditions, where victory was decisive, though 
not yet complete. Illustrations would perhaps be invidious, 
as seeming to imply a blame upon individuals which Nelson 
expressly disavowed ; blame that officers of exceptional pro- 
fessional capacity, concerning whom the measured profes- 
sional opinion of Lord Howe affirmed that the Battle of the 
Nile ''was unparalleled in this respect, that every cajjtain 
distinguished himself," fell short of the peculiar excellence 
attained by Nelson only among the men of his day. More- 
over, this work does not aim at a discussion of battles, except 
so far as they touch Nelson personally. It may, however, be 
permissible to remark, that the incident here under discus- 
sion suggests a doubt about the opinion, too easily current, 
that an admiral's powers of control cease when the battle 
joins. Under the circumstances, it is probable that Nelson, 
being so far incapacitated as he thought himself, should have 
transferred the direction of affairs, formally, to the next 
senior officer, with general orders to secure the best results 
attainable. 

The following morning it was found that the leading six 
ships of the French had already struck their colors. The 
" Orient " having blown up, there were six survivors. Of 
these, one, the " Tonnant," next astern of the " Orient,'" 
though dismasted, was still afloat, a mile behind her former 
position, having dropped there to avoid the explosion. The 
" Heureux " and " Mercure," which had slipped their cables 
for the same reason, were ashore and helpless. The spars of 
the three rear ships, the " Guillaume Tell," " Genereux," and 
" Timoleon," were still standing, and they had received little 
injury. At about noon, these vessels, commanded by Eear 
Admiral Villeneuve, got under way to go to sea ; but the 
" Timoleon " cast with her head inshore, and, after an ineffect- 
ual attempt to wear, ran aground, bows on, her foremast 
going over the side as she struck. The crew escaped to the 



306 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

beach, and she was then set on fire by her captain, her colors 
flying as she burned. The two other ships escaped, with two 
frigates which accompanied them. Only one British ship, the 
" Zealous," was in condition to follow, and she did so ; but 
Nelson, seeing that she could not be supported, recalled her 
from the unequal contest. 

It is upon the chance that these sole survivors of the great 
catastrophe might have been secured, by action during the 
night, that the validity of Nelson's regrets turns. Concerning 
this, it is impossible to affirm positively one way or the other; 
therefore his regrets were well grounded. It is not certainties, 
but chances, that determine the propriety of military action. 
Had Villeneuve, conscious that he had done nothing as yet, 
and not fully aware how the fight had gone, hesitated about 
running away, and had several British ships dropped to lee- 
ward together, which was all they had to do, and what the 
dismasted French had done, it was quite within the bound of 
possibilities that the "Genereux" and the " Guillaume Tell" 
would have been crippled at their anchors. " If " and " but," 
it may be objected. Quite so ; it is on if and but, not on yea 
and nay, that military criticism justly dwells. A flash of 
lightning and a crash of thunder may be seen and heard ; it 
is the still small voice that leads the hero to success. As 
regards Villeneuve, indecision was his distinguishing trait ; 
and Bonaparte wrote that if any error could be imputed to 
him, it was that he had not got under way as soon as the 
'' Orient " blew up, for by that time the battle was lost beyond 
redemption. 

The extent of the victory was decided by tliis retreat, and 
Nelson, before devoting himself to the new duties entailed by 
his successes, paused an instant that he might first acknowl- 
edge his debt of gratitude to God and man. A memorandum 
was issued at once to the captains of the Squadron : — 



Vanguard off the mouth of the Nile, 2d August, 1798. 

Almighty God having blessed His INIajesty's arms with victory, the 
Admiral intends returning Public Thanksgiving for the same at two 
o'clock this day ; and he recommends every ship doing the same as 
soou as convenient. 

Horatio Nelson. 



BATTLE OF THE NILE 307 

To those under his command he at the same time issued a 
general order, congratulating, by explicit mention of each 
class, the captains, officers, seamen, and marines, upon the 
event of the conflict. "The Admiral desires they will accept 
his most sincere and cordial thanks for their very gallant 
behaviour in this glorious battle." It was this habit of associ- 
ating to himself, in full recognition and grateful remembrance, 
those who followed and fought with him, that enthroned 
Nelson in the affections of his men ; nor will it escape obser- 
vation that the warmth, though so genuine, breathes through 
Avords whose quietness might be thought studied, were they 
not so transparently spontaneous. There is in them no appeal 
to egotism, to the gratified passion for glory, although to that 
he was far from insensible ; it is the simple speech of man to 
man, between those who have stood by one another in the 
hour of danger, and done their duty — the acknowledgment 
after the event, which is the complement of the famous signal 
before Trafalgar. 

The order closed with further words of commendation, 
which will not have the immortal response of the human 
heart to the other phrases ; but which, uttered at such a 
moment, conveyed a salutary warning, justified as much by 
recent unhappy events in the British navy, as by the well- 
known disorganization and anarchy that had disgraced that of 
France. " It must strike forcibly every British seaman, how 
superior their conduct is, ivhen in discipline and good order, 
to the riotous behaviour of lawless Frenchmen." ^ Captain 
Berry states that the assembling of the "Vanguard's" ship's 
company for the thanksgiving service strongly impressed the 
prisoners on board, — not from the religious point of view, 
which was alien from the then prevalent French temper, — 
but as evidence of an order and discipline which could render 
such a proceeding acceptable, after a victory so great, and at a 
moment of such seeming confusion, No small amount of 
self-possession, indeed, was needed thus to direct the attention 
of six hundred men, in the confined space of a ship, whose 
shattered sides and blood-stained decks bore witness to the 
hundred dead and wounded snatched from their number 
within the few hours before ; yet, on the other hand, nothing 

1 Author's italics. 



308 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

could have been better calculated to compose the thoughts, or 
to facilitate the transition from the excitement of battle to 
the resumption of daily life. 

If, by the escape of two ships-of-the-line, the British triumph 
lacked something in technical completeness, the disaster to the 
French was no less absolute. Victory, said Nelson truly, is 
not the name for such a scene as I have witnessed. There 
remained now to gather up the spoils of the field, and to 
realize the consequences of the battle, great and small, near 
and remote. The first was speedily done ; battered as they 
were, " only two masts standing out of nine sail-of-the-line," 
within a fortnight six of the nine prizes were ready to start 
for Gibraltar. Little by little, yet with the rapidity of his 
now highly trained intuitions, Nelson saw the greatness of 
what lie had effected, and with his full native energy struggled 
on, amid mental confusion and bodily suffering, and in the 
heat of an Egyptian August, to secure all the fruits of success. 
With splitting head and constantly sick, a significant indica- 
tion of the rattling shock his brain had received, he was 
wonderfully helped, so far as tlie direction of his efforts was 
concerned, by the previous familiarity of his mind with the 
various elements of the problem. First of all, the home gov- 
ernment must be informed of an event that would so pro- 
foundly affect the future. Berry's orders, as bearer of de- 
spatches to St. Vincent off Cadiz, were issued on the 2d of 
August ; but there were no frigates, and the " Leander," 
appointed to carry him, could not sail till the 6th. For the 
same reason it was not until the 14th that the " Mutine " 
could be sent off with duplicates, to go direct to the Admi- 
ralty by way of Naples, — a wise precaution in all events, but 
doubly justified in this case ; for the brig reached port, 
whereas the fifty-gun ship was captured by the " Genereux." 
The " Mutine's " account, though hastened forward without 
delay, reached London only on the 2d of October, two months 
after the action. 

The news was received at the first with an applause and a 
popular commotion commensurate to its greatness, and prom- 
ised for the moment to overflow even the barriers of routine in 
one of the most conservative of nations. " Mr. Pitt told me the 
day after Captain Capel arrived," wrote his old admiral, Hood, 



HONORS GIVEN FOR THE NILE 309 

to Nelson, "that you would certainly be a Viscount, which 
I made known to Lady Nelson. But it was objected to in a 
certain quarter, because your Lordship was not a commander- 
in-chief. In my humble opinion a more flimsy reason never 
was giyen." Official circles regained, or rather perhaps again 
lost, their senses, and the victory, unquestionably the most 
nearly complete and the most decisive ever gained by a 
British fleet, was rewarded, in the person of the commanding 
officer, with honors less than those bestowed for St. Vincent 
and Camperdown. Nelson was advanced to the lowest rank 
of the peerage, as Baron Nelson of the Nile. "In con- 
gratulating your Lordship on tliis high distinction," wrote the 
First Lord, " I have particular pleasure in remarking, that it 
is the highest honour that has ever been conferred on an 
officer of your standing,^ in the Service, and who was not a 
commander-in-chief ; and the addition [of the Nile] to the 
Title is meant more especially to mark the occasion on which 
it was granted, which, however, without any such precaution, 
is certainly of a nature never to be forgotten." His Lordship's 
sense of humor must a little have failed him, when he penned 
the platitude of the last few words. 

To the sharp criticism passed in the House of Commons on 
the smallness of the recognition, the Prime Minister replied 
that Nelson's glory did not depend upon the rank to which he 
might be raised in the peerage ; a truism too palpable and in- 
applicable for serious utterance, the question before the House 
being, not the measure of Nelson's glory, but that of the 
national acknowledgment. As Hood justly said, " All remun- 
erations should be proportionate to the service done to the 
public ; " and if that cannot always be attained absolutely, 
without exhausting the powers of the State,^ there should at 
least be some proportion between the rewards themselves, 
extended to individuals, and the particular services. But even 
were the defence of the Ministers technically perfect, it would 
have been pleasanter to see them a little blinded by such an 
achievement. Once in a way, under some provocations, it is 
refreshing to see men able even to make fools of themselves. 

1 " Eank " doubtless is meant by this singularly ill-chosen word. 

2 As General Sherman justly asked, " What reward adequate to the service, 
could the United States have given Grant for the Vicksburg campaign ? " 



310 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelson made to the First Lord's letter a reply that was 
dignified and yet measured, to a degree unusual to him, con- 
trasting singularly with his vehement reclamations for others 
after Copenhagen. Without semblance of complaint, he 
allowed plainly to appear between the lines his own sense that 
the reward was not proportionate to the service done. ''I 
have received your Lordship's letter communicating to me the 
Title his Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer upon 
me — an Honour, your Lordship is pleased to say, the highest 
that has ever been conferred on an ofl&cer of my standing who 
was not a Commander-in-Chief. I receive as I ought what the 
goodness of our Sovereign, and not my deserts, is j)leased to 
bestow ; but great and unexampled as this honour may be to 
one of my standing, yet I own I feel a higher one in the un- 
bounded confidence of the King, your Lordship, and the whole 
World, in my exertions. Even at the bitter moment of my 
return to Syracuse, your Lordship is not insensible of the 
great difficulties I had to encounter in not being a Commander- 
in-Chief. The only happy moment I felt was in the view of 
the French ; then I knew that all my sufferings Avould soon be 
at an end." To Berry he wrote : " As to both our Honours, it 
is a proof how mnch a battle fought near England is prized to 
one fought at a great distance." 

Whatever was defective in the formal recognition of his 
own government was abundantly supplied by the tributes 
which flowed from other quarters, so various, that his own 
phrase, "the whole world," is scarcely an exaggeration to 
apply to them. The Czar, the Sultan, the Kings of Sardinia 
and of the Two Sicilies, sent messages of congratulation and 
rich presents ; the Czar accompanying his Avith an autograph 
letter. The Houses of Parliament voted their thanks and a 
pension of £2,000 a year. The East India Company acknowl- 
edged the security gained for their Lidian possessions by a gift 
of £10,000, £2,000 of which he, with his wonted generosity, 
divided at once among his father and family, most of whom 
were not in prosperous circumstances. Other corporations 
took appropriate notice of the great event ; instances so far 
apart as the cities of London and Palermo, and the Island of 
Zante, showing how wide-spread was the sense of relief. Not 
least gratifying to him, with his sensitive appreciation of 



HONORS GIVEN FOR THE NH.E 311 

friendship and susceptibility to flattery, must have been the 
numerous letters of congratulation he received from friends in 
and out of the service. The three great admirals, — Lords 
Howe, Hood, and St. Vincent, — the leaders of the Navy in 
rank and distinguished service, wrote to him in the strongest 
terms of admiration. The two last styled the battle the 
greatest achievement that History could produce ; while 
Howe's language, if more measured, was so only because, like 
himself, it was more precise in characterizing the special 
merits of the action, and was therefore acknowledged by 
Nelson with particular expressions of pleasure. 

Besides the honors bestowed upon the commander of the 
squadron, and the comprehensive vote of thanks usual on such 
occasions, a gold medal commemorative of the battle was given 
to the admiral and to each of the captains present. The First 
Lord also wrote that the first-lieutenants of the ships engaged 
would be promoted at once. The word " engaged " caught Nel- 
son's attention, as apparently intended to exclude the lieutenant 
of the " Culloden," Troubridge's unlucky ship. '' For Heaven's 
sake, for my sake," he wrote to St. Vincent, '' if this is so, get 
it altered. Our dear friend Troubridge has suffered enough. 
His sufferings were in every respect more than any of us. 
He deserv^es every reward which a grateful Country can 
bestow on the most meritorious sea-officer of his standing in 
the service. I have felt his worth every hour of my com- 
mand." " I well know, he is my superior," he said on another 
occasion ; " and I so often want his advice and assistance. I 
have experienced the ability and activity of his mind and 
body : it was Troubridge that equipped the squadron so soon 
at Syracuse — it was he that exerted himself for me after the 
action — it was Troubridge who saved the Culloden, when 
none that I know in the service would have attempted it — it 
was Troiibridge whom I left as myself at Naples to watch 
movements — he is, as a friend and an officer, a noniKireil ! " 
His entreaties prevailed so far that the officer in question 
received his promotion, not with the others, but immediately 
after them ; a distinction which Troubridge bewailed bitterly, 
as a reflection upon himself and his ship. 

On the 9th of August Nelson sent a lieutenant to Alexan- 
dretta, on the northern coast of Syria, to make his way overland, 



312 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

by way of Aleppo, to India, with despatches to the Governor 
of Bombay. Resuming briefly the events of the past months, 
and the numbers and character of the French army in Egypt, 
he expresses the hope that special care will be exercised 
against the departure of ships from India, to convey this 
huge force thither by the Red Sea. On the side of the 
Mediterranean, their fate is settled by the recent victory. 
They can receive nothing from France ; they cannot advance 
freely into Syria, as water transport is essential for much of 
their equipment ; even in Egypt itself they are hampered by 
the difficulties of communication — on land by the guerilla 
hostility of the natives, and now on the water through his own 
presence and control. The Nile, through its Rosetta mouth, 
had been heretofore the easiest communication between Cairo 
and Alexandria. The garrison of the latter depended largely 
for daily bread upon this route, now closed by the fleet in 
Aboukir Bay. By land, nothing short of a regiment could 
pass over ground where, even before the battle, the French 
watering-parties from the ships had to be protected by heavy 
armed bodies. He intended, therefore, to remain where he 
was as long as possible. " If my letter is not so correct as 
might be expected," he concludes, "I trust for your excuse, 
when I tell you that my brain is so shook with the wounds in 
my head, that I am sensible I am not always so clear as could 
be wished ; but whilst a ray of reason remains, my heart and 
my head shall ever be exerted for the benefit of our King and 
Country." 

It may be added here, that the scar left by this wound 
seems to have been the cause of Nelson's hair being trained 
down upon his forehead, during the later years of his life. 
Prior to that it was brushed well off and up, as may be seen 
in the portrait by Abbott, painted during his stay in England, 
while recovering from the loss of his arm. After his death, a 
young officer of the '' Victory," who had cut off some locks for 
those who wished such a remembrance of their friend, speaks 
of " the hair that used to hang over his forehead, near the 
wound that he received at the Battle of the Nile." 

The perception of his control over the communications from 
Rosetta to Alexandria dawned rather late upon Nelson, for on 
the 5th of August he had announced his purpose of starting 



SAILS FOR NAPLES 313 

down the Mediterranean on the 19th. This he postponed 
afterwards to the first part of September, and again for as 
long as possible. While in this intention, most secret and 
urgent orders came on the loth from St. Vincent, to return to 
the westward with his command, and to co-operate with an 
expedition planned against Minorca. Six prizes, with seven 
of the British ships-of-the-line, had started on the 14th for 
Gibraltar, under the command of Sir James Saumarez. The 
three remaining prizes were burned, and hasty temporary 
repairs, adequate only for a summer voyage, were put upon 
the " Vanguard," " Culloden," and " Alexander," the three 
most defective ships of his fleet. On the 19th he sailed with 
these three for Naples, which he had from the first intended 
to visit, in order to give them the complete overhauling they 
imperatively needed. On and after the 13th of August sev- 
eral frigates had joined him. Three of these, witli three 
ships-of-the-line, were left with Captain Hood, to conduct the 
blockade of Alexandria, and to suppress the enemy's com- 
munications by water along the coasts of Egypt and Syria. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Nelson's Eeturn from Egypt to Naples. — Meeting with Lady 
Hamilton. — Association with the Court of Naples. — War be- 
tween Naples and France. — Defeat of the Neapolitans. — 
Flight of the Court to Palermo. 

September-December, 1798. Age, 40. 

THE voyage of Nelson's small division from Aboukir Bay 
to Naples occupied between four and five weeks, owing 
partly to light and contrary winds, and partly to the dull sail- 
ing of the " Culloden," which had a sail secured under her 
bottom to lessen the dangerous leak caused by her grounding 
on the night of the battle. This otherwise unwelcome delay 
procured for Nelson a period of salutary, though enforced, 
repose, which the nature of his injuries made especially 
desirable. His mind, indeed, did not cease to work, but it 
was free from harassment ; and the obvious impossibility of 
doing anything, save accept the present easy-going situation, 
contributed strongly to the quietness upon which restoration 
depended. Nor were there wanting matters of daily interest 
to prevent an excess of monotony. Now that frigates were 
no longer so vitally necessary, they and other light cruisers 
turned up with amusing frequency, bringing information, and 
being again despatched hither and yonder with letters from 
the admiral, which reflected instinctively his personal moods, 
and his active concern in the future military operations. 

The distress from his head continued for some time with 
little abatement, and naturally much affected his tone of mind. 
At the first he spoke of his speedy return to England as 
inevitable, nor did the prospect occasion the discourage mejnt 
which he had experienced after the loss of his arm ; a symp- 
tom which had shown the moral effect of failure upon a sen- 
sitive and ambitious temperament. "My head is ready to 
split," he had written to St. Vincent before starting, "and I 



INSISTS ON ACTIVE OPERATIONS 315 

am always so sick ; in short, if there be no fracture, my head 
is severely shaken." A fortnight after leaving the bay, he 
writes him again : " I know I ought to give up for a little 
while ; my head is splitting at this moment ; " and Nicolas 
remarks that the letter bears evident marks of suffering, three 
attempts being made to spell the word "splitting." Yet by 
this time the pain had become at least intermittent, for Sau- 
marez, whose squadron fell in with the admiral's division 
several times, notes that on the 26th of August he spent half 
an hour on board the fiagshij), and found him in perfect health ; 
and on the 7th of September Nelson himself writes to the 
British minister at Florence that he felt so much recovered, 
it was probable he would not go home for the present. A 
few days later he wrote to Hood, off Alexandria, that he 
relied upon the thoroughness of the blockade to complete the 
destruction of the French army. " I shall not go home," he 
added, " until this is effected, and the islands of Malta, Corfu, 
&c., retaken." 

It is to the furtherance of these objects, all closely allied, 
and in his apprehension mutually dependent, that his occa- 
sional letters are directed. His sphere of operations he plainly 
conceives to be from Malta, eastward, to Syria inclusive. " I 
detest this voyage to Naples," he wrote to St. Vincent, two 
days before reaching the port. " Nothing but absolute neces- 
sity could force me to the measure. Syracuse in future, whilst 
my operations lie on the eastern side of Sicily, is my port, 
where every refreshment may be had for a fleet." The pres- 
ent necessity was that of refit and repair, to which Syracuse 
was inadequate. " For myself," he sent word to Sir William 
Hamilton, " I hope not to be more than four or live days at 
Naples, for these times are not for idleness." He is urgent 
that Naples should now actively support the operations against 
Malta, and shell the transports in Alexandria. " Naples has 
evidently broken her treaty with France, and yet is afraid to 
assist in finishing the vast armament of the French. Four 
hours with bomb-vessels would set all in a blaze, and we know 
what an army is without stores." To the British minister in 
Turkey he is siniilarly insistent. If the Sultan will but send 
a few ships-of-the-line, and some bombs, he can destroy all 
the transports in Alexandria ; and an army of ten thousand 



316 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

meu may retake the place immediately, for the French have 
ill it only four thousand. The need to do this is urgent, 
for, by the information of French prisoners, Bonaparte only 
wanted '' communication opened by sea to march into Syria, 
that the transports," — which Nelson proposes to burn, — 
" with stores for the army, may go alongshore with him.'' 

The same tendency was shown upon the appearance of a 
Portuguese squadron of four ships-of-the-line, which entered 
the Mediterranean in July with orders to place themselves 
under his command. He first learned the fact upon this pas- 
sage, and at once sent a frigate to Alexandria to beg the Portu- 
guese admiral, the Marquis de Niza, to assume the blockade, 
as the most important service to be rendered the common 
cause. When the frigate reached its destination, ISTiza had 
come and gone, and Nelson then headed him off at the Strait 
of Messina, on his way to Naples, and sent him to blockade 
Malta. It may be added that this squadron remained under 
his command until December, 1799, and was of substantial 
utility in the various operations. Nelson professed no great 
confidence in its efficiency, which was not subjected to the 
severest tests ; but he made a handsome acknowledgment to 
its commander when it was recalled to Lisbon. 

Three weeks after reaching Naples his decision as to the 
direction of his personal oversight underwent a change, due 
to a series of events for the initiation of which, by plung- 
ing Naples prematurely into war with France, he was himself 
largely responsible. From the time that ill-considered move- 
ment began, under the combined impetus of the Queen and of 
Lady Hamilton, for both whom he expressed at this time un- 
bounded chivalrous devotion, Nelson felt tied, not merely to 
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but to the personal protec- 
tion of its Sovereigns as well. It is true, certainly, that 
orders from the Admiralty, dated October 3d, immediately 
after receiving news of the Battle of the Nile, named first 
among his duties "the protection of the coasts of Sicily, 
Naples, and the Adriatic, and, in the event of the war being 
renewed in Italy, an active co-operation with the Austrian 
and Neapolitan armies ; " but long before receiving these, 
acknowledged by him on the 18th of November, he had in- 
duced the hesitating King to precipitate war by advancing 



ARRIVAL AT NAPLES, 1798. 817 

against the French army in the Roman States, and had aban- 
doned his purpose of going to Egypt. On October 22d he 
wrote St. Vincent, "The King having desired my return to 
Naples in the first week in November, I shall, after having 
arranged the blockade of Malta, return to Naples, and en- 
deavour to be useful in the movements of their army. In 
thus acquiescing in the desire of the King of Naples, I give 
up ray plan, which was to have gone to Egypt and attended 
to the destruction of the French shipping in that quarter." 
"I do not like going back from the Eastward," he writes 
two days later, " but I give up ray own opinion for this time, 
as it is impossible to foresee how this new war may turn out." 
These expressions, repeated to others, show the anxiety of 
his mind acting against his judgment. " I feel my duty at 
present is in the East," he tells Lady Hamilton herself ; but 
devotion to the Court gains upon him until, from the expres- 
sion " who could resist such a Queen ? " written in Naples in 
November, he in February, at Palermo, commits himself un- 
reservedly to personal attention to the safety of the sover- 
eigns. "I have promised niy flag shall not go out of the mole 
at Palermo without the approbation of the Court, and that I 
never expect to get." 

On the 22d of September the flagship anchored at Naples. 
On the 15th her foremast had been carried away in a squall, 
and the " poor wretched Vanguard," as Nelson called her, 
having to be towed by a frigate, her two crippled consorts 
preceded her arrival by six days. The news of the victory 
had been brought three weeks before by the " Mutine," on 
the 1st of September. The Court party had gone wild with 
joy, in which the populace, naturally hostile to the French, 
had joined with southern vivacity of expression. Captain 
Capel, who commanded the brig, with Lieutenant Hoste, who 
was to succeed him when he departed with the despatches for 
England, had been at once taken to Court and presented. 
When they left the palace they were met by Lady Hamilton, 
who made them get into her carriage, and with characteris- 
tic bad taste and love of notoriety paraded them until dark 
through the streets of this neutral capital, she wearing a 
bandeau round her forehead with the words, " Nelson and 
Victory." " The populace saw and understood what it meant," 



318 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

wrote Hoste, '^aud 'Viva Nelson!' resounded through, the 
streets. You can have no idea of the rejoicings that were 
made throughout Naples. Bonfires and illuminations all over 
the town ; indeed, it would require an abler pen than I am 
master of to give you any account but what will fall infinitely 
short of what was the case." 

By Nelson's orders the " Mutine " sailed in a few days to 
meet him with despatches, and on the 14th of September 
joined the division off Stroniboli. With more important in- 
formation, and letters from persons of greater consequence, 
she had brought also one from Lady Hamilton, giving a vivid 
picture of the general joy, and in particular an account of the 
Queen's state of mind, so highly colored that Nelson hoped he 
might not witness a renewal of it. When the "Vanguard" 
approached the town, crowds of boats went out to meet her. 
The King himself came on board when she was still a league 
from the anchorage. He had been preceded by Sir William 
and Lady Hamilton, The latter, greatly overcome, dropped 
her lovely face and by no means slender figure into the arms 
of the admiral, who, on his part, could scarcely fail to be 
struck with the pose of one whose attitudes compelled the 
admiration of the most exacting critics. The emotion stirred 
by the warmth of his welcomes, on this and the following 
days, showed itself in phrases of unusual tenderness to his 
wife. " If so affecting to those who were only united to me 
by bonds of friendship, what must it be to my dearest wife, 
my friend, my everything which is most dear to me in this 
world ? " " The scene in the boat was terribly affecting. Up 
flew her ladyship, and exclaiming, '0 God, is it possible?' 
she fell into my arm more dead than alive. Tears, however, 
soon set matters to rights." 

This was the beginning of an intimacy destined, in the end, 
to affect profoundly and unhappily the future of Nelson. 
Although Sir William Hamilton, in his own congratulatory 
letter by the "Mutine," called him "our bosom friend," they 
do not seem to have met since the summer of 1793, when the 
young captain carried Hood's despatches from Toulon to 
Naples ; and Nelson, while acknowledging on the present 
occasion the kindness of an invitation to take up his quarters 
at the embassy, had expressed a preference for rooms at a 



EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. 

After a^aintiug by G. Komney. 



r*$ 




Mr^^ 



4 



LADY HAMILTON 319 



hotel, on account of the business to be transacted. This re- 
luctance, howerer, was easily and properly overruled, and 
immediately after anchoring he went to live at the ambas- 
sador's house, which, under the management of the celebrated 
woman who presided there, became the social centre of the 
welcomes lavished not only upon himself, but upon all the 
officers of the ships. 

Emma, Lady Hamilton, the second wife of Sir William, was 
at this time thirty -three years old, her husband being sixty- 
eight. Her name, when first entering the world, was Amy 
Lyon. Born in Cheshire of extremely poor parents, in the 
humblest walk of life, she had found her way up to London, 
while yet little more than a child, and there, having a beau- 
tiful face, much natural charm of manner and disposition, 
utterly inexperienced, and with scarcely any moral standards, 
— of which her life throughout shows but little trace, — she 
was speedily ruined, fell so far, in fact, that even with all her 
attractions it seemed doubtful whether any man would own 
himself responsible for her condition, or befriend her. In 
these circumstances, when not yet seventeen, she was taken 
up by a nephew of Sir William Hamilton, Mr. Charles Gre- 
ville, who recognized not merely her superficial loveliness, but 
something of the mental and moral traits underlying it, which 
promised a capacity for development into an interesting and 
affectionate household companion. Upon her promises of 
amendment, in the matter of future relations with men, and 
of submission to his guidance and wishes in the general con- 
duct of her life, he took her in charge, and the two lived 
together for nearly four years. 

Greville bestowed a good deal of pains upon her training, 
and was rewarded, not only by gratitude and careful compli- 
ance with his directions, but by her sincere and devoted affec- 
tion. The girl became heartily and fondly in love with him, 
finding both contentment and happiness in the simply ordered 
home provided for her. Her education, which hitherto was of 
the smallest, received attention, — her letters showing a very 
great improvement both in spelling and mode of expression by 
the end of their association. On the moral side, of course, 
there was not much development to be expected from one 
whose standards, with less excuse, were in no way better than 



320 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

her own. On this side Greville's teaching was purely utili- 
tarian. Her position was considered as a calling, — success in 
which demanded certain proprieties and accomplishments, 
only to be attained by the practice of habitual self-control, 
alike in doing and in not doing. 

The future Lady Hamilton was affectionate and impulsive, 
good-humored, with generous instincts and a quick temper ; 
but she was also ambitious and exceptionally clever. She 
loved Greville warmly ; but she took to heart the hard truths 
of his teachings, and they sank deep in a congenial soil. 
Under the influence of the two motives, she applied herself to 
gain, and did gain, a certain degree of external niceness and 
self-control. Her affection for Greville made her willing, for 
his sake, because he was not rich, to live quietly, to accept 
modest surroundings, and to discard whatever was coarse in 
associates, or unbecoming in her own person or conduct. He, 
while relaxing none of his requirements, repaid her with 
courtesy and increasing admiration, than which nothing was 
dearer to her ; for, if not appreciative of the satisfaction of 
self-respect, she was keenly alive to the delights of homage 
from others, though extorted by purely adventitious qualities. 
Glory was to her more than honor. This love of admiration, 
fostered, yet pruned, by Greville's shrewd precepts, was her 
dominant trait. To its gratification her singular personal 
advantages contributed, and they were powerfully supported 
by an unusual faculty for assuming a part, for entering into 
a character and representing its external traits. Thus gifted 
by nature, and swayed by vanity, her development was for the 
time regulated and chastened by the disinterestedness of her 
passion for her lover. Her worst qualities were momentarily 
kept in abeyance. Naturally lovable, not only in exterior but 
in temperament, she became more and more attractive. 
"Consider," wrote Greville, referring to her surroundings 
before she passed into his hands, " what a charming creature 
she would have been, if she had been blessed with the advan- 
tages of an early education, and had not been spoilt by the 
indulgence of every caprice," 

Unfortunately the restraining influence, probably ephemeral 
in any event, was about to be rudely removed, permitting to 
flourish in unrestrained vigor the natural tendency to compel 



LADY HAMILTON 321 



admiration and secure advantage by the spell of physical 
beauty, and by the exertion of natural aptitudes for pleasing 
in the only path to success open to her. In 1782 Hamilton's 
first wife died, and in 17<S4 he came to England ou leave. 
There he met Amy Lyon, now known as Emma Hart, in the 
house provided for her by Greville. His admiration of her 
Avas extreme, and its tendency was not misunderstood by her. 
He returned to his post at Kaples at the end of the year. In 
the course of 1785 Greville, who was now in his thirty-sixth 
year, decided that the condition of his fortune made it impera- 
tive for him to marry, and that as a first step thereto he must 
break with Emma Hart. Hamilton's inclination for her pro- 
vided a ready means for so doing, so far as the two men were 
concerned ; but her concurrence was not sure. After some 
correspondence, it was arranged that she should go to Naples 
in the spring of 178G, to live there under Hamilton's care, 
with the expectation on her part that Greville would join her 
a few months later. Placed as she then would be, it was 
probable that she would eventually accept the offers made 
her ; though it would be less than just to either Greville or 
Hamilton, to allow the impression that they did not intend to 
provide sufficiently for her needs, whatever her decision. 

In this way she left England in the spring of 1786, reach- 
ing ISTaples on the 26th of April. When the poor girl, after 
many of her letters to her lover remained unanswered, fully 
realized that the separation was final, her grief was extreme, 
and found utterance in words of tenderness and desolation, 
which, however undisciplined in expression, are marked by 
genuine pathos. Bub anger struggled with sorrow for the 
mastery in her soul. She was too keen-witted not to have had 
an inkling of the possible outcome of her departure from 
England, and of the doubtful position she was occupying at 
Naples ; but her wishes had made her willingly deaf to any 
false ring in the assurances given her by Greville, and she 
resented not only the abandonment, but the deceit which she, 
justly or unjustly, conceived to have been practised, while her 
womanliness revolted from the cold-blooded advice given by 
him to accept the situation. The conflict was so sharp that 
for a time both he and Hamilton expected she would return to 
England ; but Greville had not labored in vain at what he was 

21 



322 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

pleased to consider her education. By the end of the year she 
was addressing Hamilton in words of A'ery fairly assumed 
affection, but not until she had written to Greville, with a cer- 
tain haughty desperation, <' If you affront me, I will make 
him marry me." The threat was two-edged, for Hamilton 
intended Greville to be his heir ; but the latter probably gave 
little heed to a contingency he must have thought very 
unlikely for a man of fifty-six, who had passed his life in the 
world, and held Hamilton's public position. 

To effect this, however, Emma Hart now bent her personal 
charms, strong purpose, and the worldly wisdom Avith Avhich 
Greville had taught her to assure her hold upon a man. 
Love, in its unselfishness, passed out of her life with Greville. 
Other men might find her pliant, pleasing, seductive ; he alone 
knew her as disinterested. She followed out her design with 
a patience, astuteness, and consistency which attest the 
strength of her resolution, and her acute intellectual percep- 
tion of the advantages at her disposal. Ambition, a natural 
trait with her, had been trained to self-control, in order to 
compass a lowly, colorless success. Unlooked-for opportunity 
now held before her eyes, distant and difficult of attainment, 
but not impossible, a position of assured safety, luxury, and 
prominence, which appealed powerfully to the love of pleas- 
ure, still dormant, and to the love of conspicuousness, which 
became the two most noticeable features of her character. 

With all her natural advantages, however, the way was hard 
and long. She had to become indispensable to Hamilton, and 
at the same time, and by the same methods, an object the 
more desirable to him because of her evident attractiveness 
to others. Above all, she had to contend with her own tem- 
per, naturally lively and prone to bursts of anger, which the 
prolonged suspense of the struggle, acting upon a woman's 
nerves, tended peculiarly to exasperate. Hamilton Avas of 
an age when he might be enslaved by fondness, but not con- 
strained by strength of passion to endure indefinitely house- 
hold tempests, much less to perpetuate them upon himself 
by lasting bonds. In all this Emma Hart showed herself 
fully equal to the task. Tenderly affectionate to him, except 
when carried away by the fits of irritability which both he 
and Greville had occasion to observe, she complied readily 



LADY HAMILTON 323 



with all Ins wishes, and followed out with extraordinary as- 
siduity his plans for her improvement in education and in 
accomplishments. The society which gathered round them 
was, of course, almost wholly of men, who one and all pros- 
trated themselves before her beauty and cleverness, with the 
same unanimity of submission as did the officers of Nelson's 
division after the Battle of the Nile. But, while giving free 
rein to coquetry, and revelling in admiration, she afforded no 
ground for scandal to the world, or dissatisfaction to Hamil- 
ton. In the attitude of outsiders towards her, he had reason 
to see only the general testimony to her charms and to his 
own good fortune. At the end of 1787 he wrote to Greville : 
'" I can assure you her behaviour is such as has acquired her 
many sensible admirers, and we have a good man society, and 
all the female nobility, with the queen at their head, show her 
every distant civility." 

Thus she persisted, keeping her beauty, and growing in 
mental acquirements and accomplishments, but making little 
apparent headway towards the great object of her ambition. 
" I fear," wrote Hamilton towards the middle of 1789, when 
she had been three years with him, -'her views are beyond 
what I can bring myself to execute ; and that when her hopes 
on that point are over, she will make herself and me unhappy. 
Hitherto her behaviour is irreproachable, but her temper, as 
you must know, unequal." He underrated her perseverance, 
and exaggerated his own strength of reluctance, innate and 
acquired. Impossible as it would seem, with his antecedents 
and with hers, his friends and acquaintances became alarmed 
for the result, and not without cause. " Her influence over 
him exceeds all belief," Avrote a mutual friend to Greville in 
March, 1791. "His attachment exceeds admiration, it is 
perfect dotage." Shortly after this letter was written the 
two went to England, and there they were married on the 
6th of September, 1791. By the end of the year they were 
back in Naples, and did not again leave Italy up to the time 
of Nelson's arrival in 1798. 

Lady Hamilton did not abuse the security of the place she 
had won with so much pains, nor on the other hand did her 
ambition and love of prominence permit her to settle down 
to inert enjoyment of it. The careful self-restraint with 



824 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which she had observed the proprieties of her former false 
position facilitated the disappearance of prejudices naturally 
arising from it. Many English ladies of rank, passing through 
Naples, visited her, and those who refused to ignore the past 
of the woman, in the position of the British minister's wife, 
were by some sharply criticised. "She has had a difficult 
part to act," wrote Hamilton, six months after their return, 
" and has succeeded wonderfully, having gained, by having 
no pretensions, tlie thorough approbation of all the English 
ladies. The Queen of Naples was very kind to her on our 
return, and treats her like any other travelling lady of dis- 
tinction ; in short, we are very comfortably situated here." 
" We dined yesterday with Sir AVilliam and Lady Hamilton," 
wrote Lady Malmesbary, whose husband was among the most 
distinguished diplomatists of the day. " She really behaves 
as well as possible, and quite wonderfully, considering her 
origin and education." 

This last phrase, used at the culmination of Lady Hamil- 
ton's good fortune and personal advance, was wholly good- 
natured ; but it sums up the best of the not very good that 
can be said of her during tlie height of her prosperity, and 
in later j^ears. Although, as has been remarked, she did not 
at this time abuse the security which as a wife she had at- 
tained, — for policy too clearly dictated the continuance of 
her previous circumspection, — the necessity for strenuous 
watchfulness, exertion, and self-restraint, in order to reach 
a distant goal, no longer existed ; and, although a woman of 
many amiable and generous impulses, she had not a shred of 
principle to take the place of the motive of self-interest, whicli 
hitherto had been so peremptory in its exactions. What she 
was in delicacy in 1791, that she remained in 1796. — five 
years after the disappearance of her social disabilities ; a 
pretty fair proof that what she possessed of it was but skin- 
deep, the result of a diligent observance of Greville's pro- 
prieties, for her personal advantage, not the token of a noble 
inner spirit struggling from excusable defilement to the light. 
" She does the honours of the house with great attention and 
desire to please," wrote Greville's correspondent of 1791, be- 
fore quoted, '' but wants a little refinement of manners, in 
which, in the course of six years, I wonder she has not made 



LADY HAMILTON 325 



greater jjrogress.'' '' She is all Nature and. yet all Art," said 
Sir Gilbert Elliot, in 1796; "that is to say, her manners are 
perfectly unpolished, of course very easy, though not with 
the ease of good breeding, bnt of a barmaid ; excessively good 
humoured, and wishing to please and be admired by all ages 
and sorts of persons that come in her way ; but besides con- 
siderable natural understanding, she has acquired, since her 
marriage, some knowledge of history and of the arts, and one 
Avonders at the application and pains she has taken to make 
herself what she is. With men her language and conversa- 
tion are exaggerations of anything I ever heard anywhere ; 
and I Avas wonderfully struck Avith these inveterate remains 
of her origin, though the impression Avas very much weakened 
by seeing the other ladies of Naples.'' '' I thought her a very 
handsome, vulgar woman," curtly commented the lieutenant 
of a frigate Avhich visited Naples in the summer of 1798, 
Avhile hunting for Nelson in the game of cross-purposes that 
preceded the Nile.^ Allowing for difference of observers, it 
is plain that the Lady Hamilton Avhom Nelson now met, had 
not improved in essentials over the Emma Hart of a half- 
dozen years before. 

Tavo years afterwards, the A^erdict of these men was con- 
firmed by Mrs. St. George,- a lady in London society, Avho 
viewed her possibly with something of the repugnant preju- 
dice of a refined and cultivated Avomau, yet evidently measured 
her Avords calmly, even in her priA^ate journal. '^ I think her 
bold, daring, vain even to folly, and stamped with the man- 
ners of her first situation mucli more strongly than one would 
suppose, after having represented Majesty, and lived in good 
company fifteen years. Her dress is frightful. Her Avaist is 
absolutely between her shoulders." Nelson measured her by 
a different standard. " In cA'ery point of view," he tells her- 
self, "from Ambassatrice to the duties of domestic life, I 
never saAv your equal. That elegance of manners, accomplish- 
ments, and, above all, your goodness of heart, is unparalleled." 
The same lady describes her personal appearance, at the time 
Avhen his devotion had reached the height from which it never 
declined. " Her figure is colossal, but, excepting her feet, 

1 Colbum's United Service Magazine, 1847, part ii. p. 52. 

2 Afterwards Mrs, Trench, the rnotl^er of Archbishop Trench. 



326 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which are hideous, well shaped. Her bones are large, and 
she is exceedingly embonpoint. The shape of all her features 
is fine, as is the form of her head, and particularly her ears ; 
her teeth are a little irregular, but tolerably white ; her eyes 
light blue, with a brown spot in one, which, though a defect, 
takes nothing away from her beauty or expression. Her eye- 
brows and hair (which, by the bye, is never clean) are dark, 
and her complexion coarse. Her expression is strongly 
marked, variable, and interesting ; her movements in com- 
mon life ungraceful; her voice loud, yet not disagreeable." 
Elliot's briefer mention of her appearance is at once confirm- 
atory and complementary of that of Mrs. St. George : " Her 
person is nothing short of monstrous for its enormity, and is 
growing every day. Her face is beautiful." 

To these opinions it may be not uninteresting to add the 
critical estimate of AYilliam Beckford, uttered many years 
later. Beckford was not an admirable character, far from it; 
but he had known good society, and he had cultivated tastes. 
Nelson accepted his hospitality, and, with the Hamiltons, 
spent several days under his roof, about Christmas time, 1800. 
In reply to the question, " Was the second Lady Hamilton a 
fascinating woman ? " he said, '•' I never thought her so. She 
was somewhat masculine, but symmetrical in figure, so that 
Sir William called her his Grecian. She was full in person, 
not fat, but embonjjoint. Her carriage often majestic, rather 
than feminine. Not at all delicate, ill-bred, often very 
affected, a devil in temper when set on edge. She had beau- 
tiful hair and displayed it. Her countenance was agreeable, 
— fine, hardly beautiful, but the outline excellent. She 
affected sensibility, but felt none — was artful ; and no 
wonder, she had been trained in the Court of Naples — a fine 
school for an English Avoman of any stamp. Nelson wa^ 
infatuated, She could make him believe anything, that the 
profligate queen was a Madonna. He was her dupe. She 
never had a child ii; her life." ■ As to this last assertion, 
Beckford was not in a position to have personal knowledge. 

But along with this native coarseness, which, if not ineradi- 
cable, was never eradicated, she possessed an intuitive and 
perfect sense, amounting to genius, for what propriety and 
1 Beckfovd's Memoirs, London, 1859, vol. ii. p. 326. 



LADY HAMILTON 32t 



good taste demanded in the presentation of an ideal part, — 
the gift of the born actress. Of her powers in this way the 
celebrated " Attitudes " were the chief example, and there is 
no disagreement among the witnesses, either as to their charm 
or as to the entire disappearance of the every-day woman in 
the assumed character. " We had the attitudes a night or two 
ago by candle light," wrote Sir Gilbert Elliot in 1796. '' They 
come up to my expectations fully, which is saying evei-ything. 
They set Lady Hamilton in a very different light from any I 
had seen her in before ; nothing about her, neither her conver- 
sation, her manners, nor figure, announce the very refined taste 
which she discovers in this performance, besides the extraordi- 
nary talent which is needed for the execution." " You never 
saw anything so charming as Lady Hamilton's attitudes," 
Avrote Lady Malmesbury in 1791. "The most graceful 
statues or pictures do not give you an idea of them." '' It is 
a beautiful performance," wrote Mrs. St. George, who saw her 
in 1800, when the Hamiltons and Nelson were travelling on 
the Continent, " amusing to the most ignorant, and highly 
interesting to the lovers of art. It is remarkable that 
although coarse and ungraceful in common life, she becomes 
highly graceful, and even beautiful, during this performance. 
It is also singular that, in spite of the accuracy of her imita- 
tion of the finest ancient draperies, her usual dress is taste- 
less, vulgar, loaded and unbecoming." 

The stormy period of the French Revolution, which was 
about to burst into universal war at the time she was married, 
gave Lady Hamilton another opportunity to come yet more 
conspicuously before men's eyes than she had hitherto done. 
It is not easy to say what degree of influence she really 
attained, or what particular results she may have effected ; 
but she certainly managed to give herself so much the air of a 
person of importance, in the political intrigues of the day in 
Naples, as at the least to impose successfully upon a great 
many, and to be accepted very much at her own valuation. 
The French ambassador, writing to Bonaparte in 1798, says : 
" If the preponderance which the French Republic ought to 
take here, removed hence Acton and the wife of Hamilton, 
this country, Avithout other changes, would be extremely use- 
ful for the execution of all your projects in the Mediterra- 



328 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

nean ; " and Sir William himself, who should have known, 
speaks of her activity and utility, — " for several years the 
real and only confidential friend of the Queen of Naples." 
Nelson, writing to the Queen of Naples in 1804, after Hamil- 
ton's death, said : '' Your Majesty well knows that it was her 
capacity and conduct which sustained his diplomatic character 
during the last years in which he was at Naples.'" ^ Certainly, 
Nelson believed, with all the blindness of love, whatever his 
mistress chose to tell him, but he was not without close per- 
sonal knowledge of the inside history of at least two of those 
last years ; for, in 1801, addressing Mr. Addington, then 
Prime Minister, he used these words : " Having for a length 
of time seen the correspondence both public and private, from 
all the Neapolitan ministers to their Government and to the 
Queen of Naples, I am perfectly acquainted with the views of 
the several Powers." For her success Lady Hamilton was 
indebted, partly to her personal advantages, and partly to her 
position as wife of the British minister and chosen friend to 
the Queen. Great Britain played a leading part everywhere 
in the gigantic struggle throughout the Continent, but to a 
remote peninsular kingdom like Naples, protected by its dis- 
tance from the centres of strife, yet not wholly inaccessible by 
land, the chief maritime state was the one and only sufficient 
ally. A rude reminder of his exposure to naval attack had 
been given to the King of the Two Sicilies, in 1792, by the 
appearance of a French fleet, which extorted satisfaction for 
an alleged insult, by threatening instant bombardment of his 
capital. 

Sir William Hamilton, who had been minister since 1765, 
thus found himself suddenly converted from a dilettante and 
sportsman, lounging through life, into a busy diplomat, at the 
centre of affairs of critical moment. At sixty-two the change 
could scarcely have been welcome to him, but to his beautiful 
and ambitious wife the access of importance was sweet, for it 
led to a close friendship with the Queen, already disposed to 
affect her, even in the notorious position she had held before 
her marriage; and the Queen, a daughter of Maria Theresa 
and sister to Marie Antoinette, was much more of a man than 

1 Compare au equally strong assertion, Nicolas's Despatches, vol. vi. 



LADY HAMILTON 329 



the King. The intimacy became the talk of JSTapleSj and the 
report spread, easily believed, because in the nature of things 
very likely, that the personal relations between the two 
women cloaked a great deal of underhand work, such as often 
accompanies diplomatic difficulties. Nor did Lady Hamilton 
lack natural qualifications for the position into which she 
undoubtedly Avished to thrust herself. She was a brave, 
capable, full-blooded, efficient woman, not to be daunted by 
fears or scruples ; a woman who, if only nerve and intelli- 
gence Avere required, and if distinction for herself Avas at 
stake, could be fairly depended upon. There was in her 
make-up a good deal of pagan virtue. She could appreciate 
and admire heroism, and, under the stimulus of excitement, of 
self-conscious magnanimity, for the glitter of effective per- 
formance and the applause of onlookers, she was quite capable 
of heroic action. It was this daring spirit, coarsely akin to 
much that was best in himself, and of Avhich she made proof 
under his own eyes, that Nelson recognized ; and this, in 
the thought of the writer, was the body of truth, from which 
his enthusiasm, enkindled by lier charms and by her tender- 
ness towards himself, projected such a singular phantasm of 
romantic perfections. 

Such was the woman, and such the position in the public 
eye that she had gained for herself, Avhen to Naples, first 
in the European continent, came the ncAvs which made Nel- 
son for the moment the most conspicuous man of the day. 
He had achieved a triumph the most startlingly dazzling that 
had yet been gained, and over one who up to that time had 
excelled all other Avarriors in the brilliancy and extent of his 
victories. Bonaparte Avas not yet the Napoleon Avhom history 
knoAvs, but thus far he had been the most distinguished child 
of the Revolution. That Lady Hamilton then and there 
formed the purpose of attaching Nelson to her, by the bonds 
Avhich have sullied his memory, is most improbable ; but it is 
in entire keeping Avith the career and the self-revelations of 
the Avoman that she should, instinctively, if not with delibera- 
tion, have resolA^ed to parade herself in the glare of his re- 
noAvn, and appear in the foreground upon the stage of his 
triumph, the chief dispenser of his praises, the patroness and 
proprietor of the hero. The great occasion should shed a 



330 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

glamour round her, together with him. " Emma's passiou is 
admiration," Greville liad written soon after they parted, 
"and it is capable of aspiring to any line which would 
be celebrated, and it would be indifferent, when on that 
key, whether she was Lucretia or Sappho, or Scsevola or Reg- 
ulus ; anything grand, mascnline or feminine, she could 
take up." 

Unhappily, Nelson was not able to stand the heady dose of 
flattery administered by a woman of such conspicuous beauty 
and consummate art ; nor was his taste discriminating enough 
to experience any wholesome revolt against the rankness of 
the draught she offered him. The quick appreciation of the 
born actress, which enabled her when on the stage to clothe 
herself with a grace and refinement that droj^ped away when 
she left it, conspired with his simplicity of confidence in 
others, and his strong tendency to idealize, to invest her with 
a character very different from the true. Not that the Lady 
Hamilton of reality was utterly different from the Lady Ham- 
ilton of his imagination. That she ever loved him is doubtful ; 
but there were in her spirit impulses capable of sympathetic re- 
sponse to his own in his bravest acts, though not in his noblest 
motives. It is inconceivable that duty ever appealed to her 
as it did to him, nor could a woman of innate nobility of 
character have dragged a man of Nelson's masculine renown 
about England and the Continent, till he was the mock of all 
beholders ; but on the other hand it never could have occurred 
to the energetic, courageous, brilliant Lady Hamilton, after 
the loft}^ deeds and stirring dramatic scenes of St. Vincent, 
to beg him, as Lady Nelson did, '' to leave boarding to cap- 
tains." Sympathy, not good taste, would have withheld her. 
In Lady Nelson's letters there is evidence enough of a some- 
what colorless womanly affection, but not a thrill of response 
to tiie greatness of her husband's daring, even when sur- 
rounded herself by the acclamations it called forth. 

What Nelson had never yet found in woman Lady Ham- 
ilton gave him, — admiration and appreciation, undisguised 
and unmeasured, yet bestowed by one who had the power, by 
the admission of even unfriendly critics, of giving a reality 
and grace to the part she was performing. He was soon at 
her feet. The playful gallantry with which Ball, Elliot, and 



EELATIONS WITH LADY HAMILTON 331 

eveu old St. Vincent ^ himself, paid court to a handsome 
woman, greedy of homage, became in Nelson a serious mat- 
ter. Komantic in temperament, he was all day in flattering 
contact with her. Worn out and ill from that '' fever of 
anxiety," to use his own words, which he had endured since 
the middle of June, she attended and nursed him. '' Lady 
Hamilton," he exclaimed to Lady Nelson, with enthusiasm 
undiscriminating in more ways than one, '' is one of the very 
best women in this world; she is an honour to her sex." A 
week later he tells her, with an odd collocation of persons : 
" My pride is being your husband, the son of my dear father, 
and in having Sir William and Lady Hamilton for my friends. 
While these approve my conduct, I shall not feel or regard 
the envy of thousands." The matter was passing rapidly 
into the platonic stage, in which Sir William was also ere- 
long assigned an appropriate, if not wholly flattering, posi- 
tion. " What can I say of hers and Sir William's attention 
to me ? They are in fact, with the exception of you and my 
good father, the dearest friends I have in this world. I live 
as Sir William's son in the house, and my glory is as dear to 
them as their own; in short, I am under such obligations as I 
can never repay but with my eternal gratitude." " Naples is 
a dangerous place," he sagely tells Lord St. Vincent, " and we 
must keep clear of it. I am writing opposite Lady Hamilton, 
therefore 3'ou will not be surprised at the glorious jumble of 
this letter. Were your Lordship in my place, I much doubt 
if you could write so well ; our hearts and our hands must be 
all in a flutter." Matters progressed ; within ten days the 
veteran seaman learned, among other concerns of more or less 
official importance, that " Lady Hamilton is an Angel. She 
has honoured me by being my ambassadress to the queen : 
therefore she has my implicit confidence and is worthy 
of it." 

That such intimacy and such relations resulted in no in- 
fluence upon the admiral's public action is not to be believed. 
That he consciously perverted his views is improbable, but that 
he saw duty under other than normal lights is not only prob- 
able, but evident. His whole emotional nature was stirred 

1 St. Vincent at this time had not met her, at least as Lady Hamilton, but 
they exchanged occasional letters. 



332 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

as it never had been. Incipient love and universal admiration 
had created in him a tone of mind, and brought to birth feel- 
ings, which he had, seemingly, scarcely known. "I cannot 
write a stiff formal public letter," he tells St. Vincent effu- 
sively. '^ You must make one or both so. I feel you are my 
friend, and my heart yearns to you.*' Such extravagance of 
expression and relaxation of official tone has no pertinent 
cause, and is at least note^vorth3^ The Court, or rather the 
Queen through Lady Hamilton, took possession of him. He 
became immediately one of the little coterie centring round 
Her Majest}^, and he reflected its tone and partisanship, which, 
fostered probably in the intimate conversations of the two 
Avomen, Avere readily transmitted to the minister by the wife 
whom he adored. The Queen, impetuous, enterprising, and 
headstrong, like her mother and sister, moved more by fem- 
inine feelings of hatred and revenge against the French than 
by well-balanced considerations of polic}', not onl}^ favored war, 
but wished to precijDitate the action of the Emperor by im- 
mediately attacking the French in the Roman territory. The 
decision and daring of such a course was so consonant to Nel- 
son's own temperament that he readily S3'mpathized ; but it is 
impossible to admit its wisdom, from either a political or mili- 
tary standpoint. It was an excessivel}'' bad combination, sub- 
stituting isolated attacks for co-operation, and risking results 
upon the chance of prompt support, by a state which would 
be offended and embarrassed by the step taken. 

Under ordinary conditions Nelson might have seen this, but 
he was well handled. "Within three days he had been per- 
suaded that upon his personal presence depended the salva- 
tion of Italy. "My head is quite healed, and, if it were 
necessary, I could not at present leave Italy, who looks up 
to me as, under God, its Protector." He continually, by de- 
vout recollection of his indebtedness to God, seeks to keep 
himself in hand. "I am placed by Providence in that situ- 
ation, that all my caution will be necessary to prevent vanity 
from showing itself superior to my gratitude and thankful- 
ness," — but tlie current was too strong for him. and was 
swollen to a torrent by the streams of adulation, which from 
all quarters flowed in upon a temperament only too disposed 
to accept them. '• Could I, my dearest Fanny," he writes to 



HONORS PAID AT NAPLES 333 

Lady Nelson, "tell you half the honours which are shown me 
here, not a ream of paper would hold it." A grand ball was 
given on his birthda}^, September 29 ; and a rostral column 
was "erected under a magnificent canopy, never. Lady Ham- 
ilton says, to come down while they remain at Naples." 
AVithin a week the conviction of his own importance led 
him to write to Lady Hamilton, evidently for transmission 
to the Queen, an opinion, or rather an urgent expression of 
advice, that Naples should at once begin war. It is only 
conjectural to say that this opinion, which rested on no 
adequate knowledge of the strength of the Neapolitan King- 
dom, was elicited by tlie Queen through Lady Hamilton ; but 
the inference derives support from the words, " I have read 
with admiration the queen's dignified and incomparable letter 
of September, 1796," — two years before. That his views 
were not the simple outcome of his own unbiassed study of 
the situation is evident enough. "• This country, by its sys- 
tem of procrastination, will ruin itself," he writes to St. 
Vincent, the very day after drawing up the letter in question ; 
"the queen sees it and thinks " — not as I do, but — " as ive 
do." That Lady Hamilton was one of the " we " is plain, for 
in the postscript to the letter he says : " Your Ladyship will, 
I beg, receive this letter as a preparative for Sir William 
Hamilton, to whom I am writing, with all respect, the firm 
and unalterable opinion of a British admiral," etc. Certainly 
these words — taken with those alread}^ quoted, and written 
just a week afterwards, " Lady Hamilton has been my am- 
bassadress to the queen " — indicate that she was the inter- 
mediary between Nelson and the Court, as well as between 
him and her husband. 

There is no record of any official request for this unofficial 
and irregular communication of the opinion of a British ad- 
miral ; and, of course, when a man has allowed himself, un- 
asked, though not unprompted, to press such a line of action, 
he has bound himself personally, and embarrassed himself 
officially, in case it turns out badly. Nelson very soon, 
within a fortnight, had to realize this, in the urgent entreat- 
ies of the Court not to forsake them ; and to see reason for 
tliinking " that a strong wish for our squadron's being on the 
Coast of Naples is, that in case of any mishap, that their 



334 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Majesties think their persons much safer under the protection 
of the British flag than under any other ; " that is — than 
under their own. They could not trust their own people ; 
they could not, as the event proved, trust their army in the 
field ; and the veteran Neapolitan naval officer, Caracciolo, 
whether he deserved confidence or not, was stung to the quick 
when, in the event, they sought refuge with a foreign admiral 
instead of with himself. That Nelson should not have known 
all this, ten days after reaching Naples, was pardonable enough, 
and, if formally asked for advice without such facts being 
placed before him, he could not be responsible for an error 
thus arising ; but the case is very different when advice is 
volunteered. He is more peremptory than the minister him- 
self. '^ You will not believe I have said or done anything, 
without the approbation of Sir William Hamilton. His 
Excellency is too good to them, and the strong language of 
an English Admiral telling them plain truths of their miser- 
able system may do good." 

The particular position of Naples relatively to France was 
this. French troops had for a year past occupied the Roman 
Republic, which had been established by them upon the over- 
throw of the Papal Government. Their presence there was 
regarded by Nelson as a constant threat to the Two Sicilies, 
and this to an extent was true ; but rather because of the 
contagion of revolutionar}'' ideas than from the military point 
of view. From the latter, it should have been obvious to a 
man like Nelson that the French must be, deterred, under ex- 
isting conditions, from entering Naples unprovoked ; because 
the farther they advanced the more exposed was their army, 
in case war, Avhich Avas darkly threatening, should be renewed 
in Upper Italy. They dared not, unless by folly, or because 
first attacked, prolong their already too extended ex-centric 
movement into Lower Italy. This was true, taking account 
of Austria only ; but now that the British fleet Avas released 
by the entire destruction of the French at the Nile, and could 
operate anywhere on the coast, it would be doubly imprudent; 
and when the news that it had been done reached Egypt, 
Bonaparte, who had himself felt the weight of Naples as a 
possible enemy, remote and feeble as she was, exclaimed, 
" Italy is lost ! " That Naples should co-operate in the 



ADVISES NAPLES TO DECLARE WAR 335 

general movement against France was right, although, as 
Nelson well kne^y, she had never dared do so under much 
more favorable conditions, — a fact which by itself should 
have suggested to him caution ; but that she should act alone, 
with the idea of precipitating war, refusing to await the mo- 
ment fixed by the principal states, was folly. This, however, 
was the course determined, under the combined impulse of 
the Queen, Lady Hamilton, and Nelson ; and it was arranged 
that, after visiting the blockade off Malta, he should return 
to Naples to co-operate in the intended movement. 

On the 15th of October Nelson sailed from Naples for 
Malta in the •' Vanguard," with three ships-of-the-line which 
had lately joined him. He still felt, with accurate instinct, 
that Egypt and the Ionian Islands, with Malta, constituted 
the more purely maritime interests, in dealing with which the 
fleet would most further the general cause, and he alludes 
frequently to his wish to attend to them ; but he promised 
the King that he would be back in Naples in the first week 
of November, to support the projected movement against the 
French. He remained off Malta, therefore, only one week, 
during which adequate arrangements Avere made for the block- 
ade of the island, which had been formally proclaimed on the 
12th of October, and was conducted for most of the follow- 
ing year by the Portuguese squadron ; the senior British offi- 
cer. Captain Ball, acting ashore with the insurgent Maltese. 
These had risen against the French during the summer, and 
now held them shut up in La Valetta. The adjacent island 
of Gozo surrendered to the British on the 28th. Hood con- 
tinued in charge off Alexandria with three ships-of-the-line; 
while the Ionian Islands were left to themselves, until a com- 
bined Russian and Turkish squadron entered the Mediter- 
ranean a few Aveeks later. 

On the 5th of November Nelson returned to Naples. "I 
am, I feai', drawn into a promise that Naples Bay shall never 
be left without an English man-of-war. I never intended 
leaving the coast of Naples without one ; but if I had, who 
could resist tlie request of such a queen ? " He could ground 
much upon the Admiralty's orders, given when he was first 
sent into the Mediterranean, to protect the Kingdom of the 
Two Sicilies, and he had understood that the Emperor also 



336 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

would give his aid, if Naples attacked. This impression re- 
ceived strength from an Austrian general, Mack, — then of 
high reputation, but afterwards better known by his sur- 
render to Napoleon at Ulm, in 1805, — being sent to command 
the Neapolitan army. Sir William Hamilton, however, writ- 
ing on the 26th of October, was more accurate in saying that 
the Emperor only advised the King " to act openly against 
the French at Malta, as he would certainly support him;" 
for, Naples having a feudal claim upon the island, action there 
could be represented as merely resistance to aggression. In 
consequence of this misunderstanding, great confusion ensued 
in the royal councils when a courier from Vienna brought 
word, on the 13th of November, that that Court wished it left 
to the French to begin hostilities ; otherwise, it would give no 
assurance of help. Nelson was now formally one of the 
Council which deliberated upon military operations. In virtue 
of this position he spoke out, roughly enough. " I ventured 
to tell their Majesties that one of the following things must 
happen to the King, and he had his choice, — ' Either to ad- 
vance, trusting to God for his blessing on a just cause, to die 
with Vepee a la main, or remain quiet and be kicked out of 
your Kingdoms.' " Thus rudely adjured, the King decided to 
be a hero after the pattern of Nelson. 

On the 22d of November a summons was sent to the French 
to evacuate the Papal States and Malta, and a Neapolitan 
army marched upon Rome, commanded by Mack in person. 
At the same time Nelson took on board his squadron a corps 
of five thousand, to seize Leghorn, the possession of which, 
with control of the sea, was not unjustly considered threaten- 
ing to the communications between the centre of French 
power, in Northern Italy, and the exposed corps at the foot 
of the peninsula. After landing this body, Nelson again went 
to Naples, leaving Troubridge in charge at Leghorn, with 
several ships ; directing him also to keep vessels cruising along 
the Riviera, and before Genoa, to break up the coastwise traffic, 
which had resumed great proportions since the absence of the 
British from the Mediterranean, and upon which the French 
army in Piedmont and Lombardy now greatly depended. 

On the 5th of December the " Vanguard " once more 
anchored at Naples. Nelson's estimate of affairs as he now 



I 



DEFEAT OF THE NEAPOLITANS 337 

foimd them, is best told in his own words. " The state of 
this Country is briefly this : The army is at Rome, Civita 
Vecchia taken, but in the Castle of St. Angelo are live hundred 
French troops. The French have thirteen thousand troops at 
a strong post in the Eoman State, called Castellana. General 
Mack is gone against them with twenty thousand : the event 
in my opinion is doubtful, and on it hangs the immediate fate 
of iS'aples. If ]\Iack is defeated, this country, in fourteen 
days, is lost ; for the Emperor has not yet moved his army, 
and if the Emperor will not march, this country has not the 
power of resisting the French. But it was not a case of 
choice, but necessity, which forced the King of Naples to 
march out of his country, and not to wait till the French had 
collected a force sufficient to drive him, in a week, out of his 
kingdom." It is by no means so sure that no other course of 
action had been open, though Nelson naturally clung to his 
first opinion. By advancing, the King gave the French occa- 
sion, if they were seeking one ; and the Neapolitan army, 
which might well have deterred them, as it had embarrassed 
even Bonaparte in his time, had its rottenness revealed as 
only trial can reveal. When reviewed, it had appeared to 
Mack and Nelson a well-equipped force of thirty thousand 
of the ''finest troops in Europe." Brought face to face with 
fifteen thousand French, in a month it ceased to exist. 

Upon Mack's advance, tlie French general Championnet 
had evacuated Rome, into which the King made a vainglori- 
ous triumphal entry. The French retired to Castellana, fol- 
lowed by the Neapolitans ; but in the campaign that ensued 
the latter behaved with disgraceful cowardice. Flying in 
every direction, with scarcely any loss in killed, and preceded 
in their flight by tlie King, the whole force retreated in con- 
fusion upon the capital. There revolutionary ideas had 
spread widely among the upper classes ; and, although the 
populace both in city and country remained fanatically loyal, 
and hostile to the Frencli, the King and Queen feared to trust 
their persons to the issue of events. Powerless through sus- 
picions of those around them, apparently well founded, and 
through lack of any instrument with Avliich to act, now that 
their army was destroyed, their one wish was to escape to 
Palermo. 



338 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

To do this involved some difficulty, as the mob, like that of 
Paris, Avas bitterly opposed to their sovereign leaving the 
capital ; but by the management and determination of Nelson, 
who was greatly helped by the courage and presence of mind 
of Lady Hamilton, the rojal famil^^ was embarked on board 
the "Vanguard" on the evening of December 21st. During 
several previous days treasure to the amount of two and a 
half millions sterling was being conveyed secretly to the 
ship. '' The whole correspondence relative to this important 
business," wrote Nelson to St. Vincent, '^ was carried on with the 
greatest address by Lady Hamilton and the Queen, who being 
constantly in the habits of correspondence, no one could sus- 
pect." On the evening of the 23d the " Vanguard " sailed, 
and after a most tempestuous passage reached Palermo on the 
26th. The youngest of the princes, six j-ears old, taken sud- 
denly with convulsions, died on the way in the arms of Lady 
Hamilton, whose womanly helpfulness, as well as her courage, 
came out strongly in this trying time. Nelson wrote to St. 
Vincent: " It is my duty to tell your Lordship the obligations 
which the whole royal family as well as myself are under on 
this trying occasion to her Ladyship." These scenes inevi- 
tably deepened the impression she had already made upon 
him, which was not to be lessened by her lapse into feminine 
weakness when the strain was over. To use her own words, , 
in a letter to her old lover, Greville, "■ ]\[y dear, adorable 
queen and I weep together, and now that is our onely com- 
fort." "Our dear Lady Hamilton," Nelson wrote again a 
few days later, " whom to see is to admire, but, to know, are 
to be added honour and respect ; her head and heart surpass 
her beauty, which cannot be equalled by anything I have 
seen." LTpon himself the brief emergency and its sharp call 
to action had had the usual reviving effect. " Thank God," 
he wrote to Spencer, " my health is better, my mind never 
firmer, and my heart in the right trim to comfort, relieve, and 
protect those who it is my duty to afford assistance to." 

In Palermo Nelson again lived in the minister's house, 
bearing a large, if not a disproportionate, share of the 
expenses. When they returned to England in 1800, Hamil- 
ton was £2,000 in his debt. The intimacy and the manner 
of life, in the midst of the Neapolitan court, whose corrupt- 



LIFE AT PALERMO 339 



ness of manners both Nelson and Troubridge openly con- 
demned, was already causing scandal, rumors of which were 
not long in reaching home. " I am quite concerned," wrote 
Captain Ball to Saumarez, when Nelson was about to quit the 
station, " at the many severe paragraphs which have been put 
in the newspapers respecting him and Lady Hamilton. I am 
convinced that there has not been anything improper between 
them — his Lordship could not fail being delighted with her 
accomplishments and manners, which are very fascinating." 
Lady Nelson, uneasy as a wife could not fail to be at reports 
affecting her husband's honor, and threatening her own happi- 
ness, quickly formed, and for a time entertained, the thought 
of joining him on the station ; ^ but, if she broached the idea 
to Nelson, he certainly discouraged it. Writing to her on the 
10th of April, 1799, he said: "You would by February have 
seen how unpleasant it would have been had you followed an}/ 
advice, which carried 3'ou from England to a wandering sailor. 
I could, if you had come, oidi/ have struck my flag, and carried 
you back again, for it would have been impossible to have set 
up an establishment at either Naples or Palermo." ^ 

The scandal increased apace after his headquarters were 
fixed at Palermo. Lady Minto, writing from Vienna to her 
sister, in July, 1800, says : '' Mr. Eushout and Colonel Rooke,^ 
whom I knew in Italy, are here. Mr. Rushout is at last going 
home. He escaped from Naples at the same time as the 
King did in Nelson's ship, and remained six months at 
Palermo ; so I had a great deal of intelligence concerning the 
Hero and his Lady. . . . Nelson and the Hamiltons all lived 
together in a house of which he bore the expense, which was 
enormous, and every sort of gaming Avent on half the night. 
Nelson used to sit with large parcels of gold before him, and 
generally go to sleep. Lady Hamilton taking from the heap 
without counting, and playing with his money to the amount 
of £500 a night. Her rage is play, and Sir William says 
when he is dead she will be a beggar. However, she has 

1 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 138, note. " Pettigrew, vol. i. p. 220. 

3 Lord Minto was at this time ambassador to Vienna. Eushout and Pooke 
were men well known on the Continent. ]>oth are mentioned with some 
particularity in the Memoirs of Pryse Lockhart Gordon, another continental 
rambler. 



340 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

about £30,000 worth of diamonds from the royal family in 
presents. She sits at the Councils, and rules everything and 
everybody." Some of these statements are probably beyond 
the personal knowledge of the narrator, and can only be 
accepted as current talk ; but others are within the obser- 
vation of an eye-witness, evidently thought credible by Lady 
Minto, who was a friend to Nelson. Mr. Paget, who succeeded 
Hamilton as British minister, mentions the same reports, in 
his private letter to Lord Grenville, the Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs. Hamilton had asked to see his instructions. 
" I decided at once not to do so, for he would certainly have 
been obliged to show them to Lady Hamilton, who would 
have conveyed them next moment to the queen. . . . Lord 
Nelson's health is, I fear, sadl}^ impaired, and I am assured 
that his fortune is fallen into the same state, in consequence 
of great losses which both his Lordship and Lady Hamilton 
have sustained at Faro and other games of hazard." ^ 

The impressions made upon Lord Elgin, who touched at 
Palermo on his way to the embassy at Constantinople, are 
worth quoting ; for there has been much assertion and denial 
as to what did go on in that out-of-the-way corner of the 
world, Lady Hamilton ascribing the falsehoods, as she claimed 
they were, to the Jacobinical tendencies of those who spread 
them. "During a week's stay at Palermo, on my passage 
here," wrote Elgin, " the necessity of a change in our repre- 
sentative, and in our conduct there, appeared to me most 
urgent. You may perhaps know from Lord Grenville how 
strong my impression on that subject Avas." ^ Troubridge, a 
pattern of that most faithful friendship which dares to risk 
alienation, if it may but save, wrote urgently to his chief : 
" Pardon me, my Lord, it is my sincere esteem for you that 
makes me mention it. I know you can have no pleasure sit- 
ting up all night at cards ; why, then, sacrifice your health, 
comfort, purse, ease, everything, to the customs of a country, 
where your stay cannot be long ? . . . Your Lordship is 
a stranger to half that happens, or the talk it occasions ; if 
you knew what your friends feel for you, I am sure you would 
cut all the nocturnal parties. The gambling of the people at 
Palermo is publicly talked of everywhere. I beseech your 
1 The Paget Tapers, London, 1896, p. 185. 2 i\)[± p. 219. 



LIFE AT PALEliMO 341 



Lordship leave off. I wish my pen could tell you my feel- 
ings, I am sure you would oblige me. Lady H 's char- 
acter will suffer, nothing can prevent people from talking. A 
gambling woman, in the eye of an Englishman, is lost. . . , 
You will be surprised when I tell you I hear in all companies 
the sums won and lost on a card in Sir William's house. It 
furnishes matter for a letter constantly, both to Minorca, 
Naples, Messina, etc., etc., and finally in England. I trust 
your Lordship Avill pardon me ; it is the sincere esteem I 
have for you that makes me risk your displeasure.'' To this 
manly appeal Nelson seems to have made no reply ; none at 
least is quoted. In the same letter Troubridge tells him 
plainly that great discontent had arisen from " the known 
interference of Lady Hamilton," some months before, in the 
case of a marine condemned to death for mutiny. •"' These 
things get home, and are talked of in a different manner to 
what your Lordship can have any idea of."^ 

1 Troubridge to Nelson, Dec. 15 and 28, 1799. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Nelson's Caket.r, and General Events in the Meuiteuranean and 
Italy, from the Overthrow of the Koyal Government in 
Naples to the Incursion of jhe French Fleet under Admiral 
Bruix. 

January-JNIay, 1799. Agk, 40. 

THE four and a half months of unbroken residence in 
Palermo, which followed the flight of the Court from 
Naples, were full of anno3-ance and distress to Nelson, inde- 
pendent of, and additional to, the disquieting struggle between 
his passion and his conscience, which had not yet been si- 
lenced. The disasters in Naples continued. The Neapolitan 
Navy had been left in charge of one of the Portuguese officers, 
who soon found himself compelled to burn the ships-of-the- 
line, to prevent their falling into the hands of the revolution- 
ists, — a step for which he was severely, but apparently 
unjustly, censured by Nelson. The peasantry and the lower 
orders of the city took up arms, under the guidance of their 
priests, and for some time sought, with rude but undisciplined 
fury, to oppose the advance of the enem}^ ; but such untrained 
resistance was futile before the veterans of France, and on the 
23d of January, 1799, Championnet's troops entered the city. 
This was followed by the establishment of the Parthenopeian 
Republic, a name which reflected the prevailing Prench affec- 
tation of antiquity. For all this Nelson blamed the Emperor, 
and formed gloomy forebodings. '' Had the war commenced 
in September or October," he had written amid the December 
disasters, " all Italy would at this moment have been liberated. 
Six months hence, Avhen the Neapolitan Republic will be or- 
ganized, armed, and with its numerous resources called forth, 
I will suffer to have my head cut off, if the Emperor is not 
only defeated in Italy, but that he totters on his throne in 
Vienna." To this text he stuck. Three months later, when 
the preparations of Austria and Russia were complete, he 



ANNOYANCE ABOUT SIDNEY SMITH ^ 343 

wrote : " The French have made war upon the Emperor, and 
have surprised some of his troops. Serve him right ! why did 
he not go to war before ? " But the rapid, continuous, and 
overwhelming successes of the Coalition, between April and 
August, showed how untimely had been the step he had urged 
upon the King of the Sicilies, disregardful of the needed 
preparations and of the most favorable season — February to 
August — for operations in Italy. Naples never recovered 
svich political equilibrium as she had possessed before that 
ill-advised advance. In Nelson's career it, and its reverses, 
were to the Battle of the Nile what Teneriffe was to St. Vin- 
cent ; and it illustrates the inadequacy to success of merely 
"going ahead,'' unless both time and method are dictated 
by that martial intelligence which Nelson so abundantly 
possessed, but in this case failed to use. 

Not in Naples only did fortune now administer to him 
rebuffs, which seemed singularly to rebuke the change of 
direction and of base which he had been persuaded to give 
to his personal efforts. Immediately upon his arrival in 
Palermo, he heard from St. Vincent that a comparatively 
junior captain, Sir Sidney Smith, had been sent out by the 
Cabinet, bearing, besides his naval commission from the 
Admiralt}^, one from the Foreign Office as envoy to Turkey, 
conjointly with his brother, Spencer Smith. This unusual 
and somewhat cumbrous arrangement was adopted with the 
design that Smith should be senior naval officer in the Levant, 
where it was thought his hands would be strengthened by the 
diplomatic functions ; but the Government's explanation of its 
intentions was so obscure, that St. Vincent understood the 
new-comer was to be independent of both himself and Nelson. 
This impression was confirmed by a letter from Smith to 
Hamilton, in which occurred the words, '•' Hood naturally falls 
under my orders when we meet, as being my junior," while 
the general tone was that of one who had a right, b}'- virtue 
of his commission alone, to take charge of such vessels, and 
to direct such operations, as he found in the Levant. This 
impression was fairly deducible from a letter of the Secretary 
of State for Foreign Affairs, that Smith forwarded to Nelson ; 
after which, without seeking an interview, he at once went 
on for Constantinople. 



344 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelson immediately asked to be relieved. ^' I do feel, for 
I am a vian" lie wrote to St. Vincent, "that it is impossible 
for me to serve in these seas, with the squadron under a 
junior officer. Never, never was I so astonished." With 
this private letter he sent an official application for leave. 
'' The great anxiety I have undergone during the whole time 
I have been honoured with this important command, has 
much impaired a weak constitution. And now, finding -that 
much abler officers are arrived within the district which I 
had thought under my command, . . . and, I flatter myself, 
having made the British nation and our gracious Sovereign 
more beloved and respected than heretofore ; under these cir- 
cumstances I entreat, tliat if my health and uneasiness of 
mind should not be mended, that I may have your Lordship's 
permission to leave this command to my gallant and most 
excellent second in command, Captain Troubridge."' In simi- 
lar terms, though more guarded, he wrote to Earl Spencer. 
At the same time he took proper steps to prevent the official 
impropriety, not to say rudeness, Avhich Smith Avas about to 
commit by taking from Hood his charge, without either the 
latter or Nelson receiving personal instructions to surrender 
it. He sent Troubridge hastily to Alexandria to take com- 
mand there, with orders that, upon Smith's arrival, he should 
deliver up the blockade to him, and return to the westvvai'd. 
" I should hope," he wrote to Spencer, "that Sir Sidney Smith 
will not take any ship from under my command, without my 
orders ; " but he evidently expected that he would, and was 
determined to forestall the possibility of sucli an affront. 

Nelson's services had been so eminent, and were at this 
time so indispensable, and his exceptions to the manner in 
which Smith had been intruded into his command were so 
well founded, that the matter was rectified as rapidly as the 
slow round of communications in that day would permit. The 
Admiralty disclaimed any intention of circumscribing his con- 
trol in the Mediterranean, and Smith received peremptory 
orders from St. Vincent to report himself to Nelson by letter 
for orders. The latter of course carried out the Admiralty's 
wishes, by intrusting to Smith the immediate direction of 
operations in the Levant, while retaining in his own hands 
the general outlines of naval policy. He kept a very tight 



HIS DIPLOMATIC ABILITY 345 

rein on Smith, however, and introduced into the situation 
some dry humor, unusual with him. The two brothers, 
envoys, he addressed jointly, in his official letters, by the 
collective term "Your Excellency.'' "I beg of your Excel- 
lency," he says in such a letter, "to forward my letter to 
Sir Sidney Smith, Captain of the Tigre. I have this day re- 
ceived letters from Sir Sidney Smith, in his IVIinisterial 
capacity, I believe. I wish that all Ministerial letters should 
be written in your joint names ; for it may be difficult for 
me to distinguish the Captain of the man-of-war from the 
Joint Minister, and the propriety of language in one might 
be very proper to what it is in the other." To the naval cap- 
tain he writes : " I must direct you, whenever you have Minis- 
terial affairs to communicate, that it is done jointly with 
your respectable brother, and not mix naval business with 
the other. I have sent you my orders, which your abilities as 
a sea-officer will lead you to punctually execute." 

Kelson resented to the end this giving to a junior naval 
officer, by a side-Avind, an authoritative position in diplomatic 
affairs, which, on the naval side, properly belonged to him. 
" Sir Sidney should recollect," he told Earl Spencer, meaning 
doubtless that the latter also should recollect, "how I must 
feel in seeing him placed in the situation which I thought 
naturally would fall to me." It was a singular step on the 
part of the Government, justified neither by general practice, 
nor by particular ability on the part of the person chosen ; 
and all Nelson's care and decision were insufficient to prevent 
the consequent evil, although he was perfectly clear in his 
intimation to " Your Excellency," the joint ministers, that 
they should, " upbn all occasions, arrange plans of operations 
with me," and not with Captain Sir Sidney Smith. Smith 
was active and fought well ; but, as far as he dared, he did as 
he pleased in virtue of his diplomatic commission, looked 
only to the interests of his own small part of the field, and, as 
will appear later, flatly disobeyed both the spirit and the 
letter of Nelson's orders, as well as the Government's pur- 
pose, concerning the French army in Egypt. The general 
sound judgment and diplomatic ability of Nelson, who was 
thus superseded, had on the other hand been fully recognized 
■ — formally by the Government, explicitly bv St. Vincent aiid 



346 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Minto, both of whom had personal experience of his conduct 
in snch matters. "What relates to co-operation with the 
armies of the allied powers cannot be in better hands than 
yours," wrote the former, "■■ You are as great iu the cabinet 
as on the ocean, and your whole conduct fills me with admira- 
tion and confidence." "There is one other point of excel- 
lence," said Minto in the House of Peers, " to which I must 
say a single word, becanse I am, perhaps, the man iu the 
world who has had the best opportunity of being acquainted 
with it. The world knows that Lord Nelson can fight the 
battles of his country : but a constant and confidential corre- 
spondence with this great man, for a considerable portion of 
time, has taught me, that he is not less capable of providing 
for its political interests and honour, on occasions of great 
delicacy and embarrassment. In that new capacity I have 
witnessed a degree of abilit}^ judgment, tempei", and concilia- 
tion, not always allied to the sort of spirit which without an 
instant's hesitation can attack the whole Spanish line with 
his single ship." Of Nelson's superior fitness in this respect, 
the unfortunate choice of Sidney Smith for his anomalous 
position was to furnish the Government an additional proof. 

It was not in this matter only that maritime affairs in the 
East took a turn contrary to Nelson's wishes. The Admi- 
ralty's orders to him had prescribed — next after the protec- 
tion of Naples and Sicily — the blockades of Egypt and 
Malta, and co-operation with the Russian and Turkish fleets, 
which were to enter the Mediterranean from the Black Sea. 
Nelson, although never slow to express want of confidence in 
foreign navies, wished their efforts to be directed against the 
French army in Egypt, a factor in the general situation most 
decisive by its numbers, by its efficiency, and by the genius of 
its leader. lie was urgent, both with the joint ministers and 
with the representatives of Kussia and Turkey, that the fleets 
of these two powers should relieve Hood off Alexandria, in 
order to strengthen his own hands on the coast of Italy and 
oft" Malta. Neither Russia nor Turkey was easily to be con- 
vinced. Egypt was no affair of the former's, except as it con- 
cerned the general cause ; and from that point of view it was 
as much the business of Great Britain, already on the spot, as 
it was hers. With twenty thousand troops about to enter 



SUSPICIONS OF RUSSIA 347 

into a campaign in Northern Italy, as allies of Austria, Russia 
had undeniable interests there, as well as in the Ionian 
Islands, which commanded the entrance to the Adriatic, a sea 
important to communications between Austria and Lombardy. 
The islands also were, in the hands of France, a threat to the 
Turkish mainland. It was against these, therefore, that the 
Russo-Turkish forces directed their efforts, greatly to Nelson's 
disgust, and there they remained, chained by the obstinate 
resistance of Corfu, until the 1st of March, 1799, when it sur- 
rendered. The fifty -gun ship " Leander," which had been 
taken by the French seventy-four " Genereux," when carrying 
Nelson's despatches after the Nile, was here recaptured and 
restored to Great Britain. 

Nelson viewed the progress and policy of Rnssia Avith a 
mind fully imbued with the distrust, which, for the last 
quarter of a century, had been supplanting gradually the 
previous friendly feeling of Great Britain toward that country. 
As soon as he heard of the intention to attack the islands, 
in November, 1798, he hurried off Troubridge to anticipate a 
seizure which he expected to be more easy than it proved. 
" You will proceed to sea without a moment's loss of time," 
his instructions ran, " and make the best of your way to the 
Island of Zante ; and if the Russians have not taken posses- 
sion of that island and Cephalonia, you will send on shore by 
the Priest I shall desire to accompany you, ray Declaration. 
If you can get possession of the islands before named, you 
will send my Declaration into the Island of Corfu, and use 
your utmost endeavours to get possession of it. . . . Should 
the Russians have taken possession of these Islands and be 
cruizing near with the Turkish fleet, you will pay a visit to 
the Turkish admiral, and by saluting him (if he consents to 
return gun for gun) and every other mark of respect and 
attention, gain his confidence. You will judge whether he 
is of a sufficient rank to hold a confidential conversation 
with." It is evident that Nelson's action was precipitated 
by the news of the Russian movement, and its tenor dictated 
by a wish to sow distrust between Turkey and Russia. The 
omission of any mention of a Russian admiral is most sig- 
nificant. "• Captain Troubridge was absolutely under sail," 
he wrote to Spencer Smith, "^ when I heard with sorrow that 



348 THE LIFE OF XELSON 

the Russians were there." His eagerness in the matter is the 
more evident, in that he thus detached Troubridge at the 
moment when he was about to start for Leghorn, where his 
trusted subordinate and his ship would be greatly needed. 

"I was in hopes that a part of the united Turkish and 
Russian squadron would have gone to Egypt — the first ob- 
ject of the Ottoman arms," he tells the Turkish admiral. 
" Corfu is a secondary consideration." To Spencer Smith he 
writes : " I have had a long and friendly conference with 
Kelim Effendi on the conduct likely to be pursued by the 
Russian Court towards the unsuspicious (I fear) and upright 
Turk. The Porte ought to be aware of the very great danger 
at a future day of allowing the Russians to get footing at 
Corfu, and I hope they will keep them in the East. Our 
ideas have exactly been the same about Russia. . . . Surely 
I had a right to expect that the united fleets would have 
taken care of the things east of Candia. I never Avished to 
have them west of it." ^' The Russians seem to me to be more 
intent on taking ports in the Mediterranean than destroying 
Bonaparte in Egypt." 

It was well known at this time that the Czar Avas looking 
towards Malta and the restoration of the Order of the Knights, 
of which he had been elected Grand Master the previous 
October, immediately after Bonaparte's seizure of the island 
became known. Nelson held that the King of Naples was 
the legitimate sovereign, and he directed Captain Ball, his 
own representative there, to have all the Maltese posts and 
forces fly the Neapolitan flag ; but he, with Hamilton, got a 
note from the King, promising that Malta should never be 
transferred to any other Power without the consent of Eng- 
land. " Should any Russian sliips, or admiral, arrive oft' 
Malta," he instructed Ball, '^ yon Avill convince him of the 
very unhandsome manner of treating the legitimate sovereign 
of Malta., by wishing to see the Russian flag fly in Malta, and 
also of me, Avho command the forces of a Power in such close 
alliance with the Russian Emperor, which have been blockad- 
ing and attacking Malta for near six months. The Russians 
shall never take the lead." 

Three AA^eeks later he authorized Ball, Avith the consent of 
the King, to preside oyer the meetings of the IMaltese chiefs, 



JEALOUSY OF RUSSIA 349 

and, by the desire of Lis Sicilian Majesty, the British flag 
was to be hoisted alongside the Sicilian in every place where 
the latter was flown, "side by side, that of England being on 
the right hand," to show that the island was under the special 
protection of Great Britain during the war. On the 23d of 
March he cordially congratulates the Eussian admiral upon 
the fall of Corfu, news of which he has just received, and he 
mentions, meaningl}^, '^The flag of his Sicilian Majesty, with 
that of Great Britain, is flying on all parts of Malta, except 
the town of Valetta, the inhabitants of which have, with his 
Sicilian Majesty's consent, put themselves under the protec- 
tion of Great Britain," " I attach no value to it for us," he 
said explicitly to the P^irst Lord, meaning, no doubt, for the 
purposes of the existing war. This opinion was perfectly 
consonant to the secondary importance he had latterly at- 
tributed to the presence of the British in the Levant, as com- 
pared to their duties towards Naples, but though he reiterated 
it in the later war, it was with the express qualification that, 
for the security of communication with India, not then in 
question, the value of the island was indisputable. 

But if, positively, Malta was of little use to England, — 
"a useless and enormous expense," to use his own words, — 
yet, negatively, the consequences of its passing into the hands 
of a powerful rival were too serious to be permitted. " Any 
expense should be incurred rather than let it remain in the 
hands of the French." The same distrust of the Russians 
was suggested by his keen political insight. " You will ob- 
serve what is said in the despatches of the Consul at Corfu," 
he writes to St. Vincent, '• respecting the Russians being or- 
dered to Malta. I know this is a favourite object of the 
Emperor's, and is a prelude to a future war with the good 
Turk, when Constantinople will change masters. This is so 
clear, that a man must be blind not to see it." "I have just 
received the Emperor of Russia's picture in a box magnifi- 
cently set with diamonds ; it has done him honour and me a 
pleasure to have my conduct approved ; " " but," he tells 
Ball, significantly, "this shall not prevent my keeping a 
sharp look-out on his movements against the good Turk." 

As regards Paul I., ferocious and half crazy as he was, this 
imputation of merely interested foresight scarcely did justice 



350 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

to the quixotic passions which often impelled hiiu to the most 
unselfish acts, but the general tendency Avas undeniable ; and 
Nelson's watchful attitude exemplifies the numerous diplo- 
matic, as well as military, responsibilities that weighed upon 
him. He was, practically, commander-in-chief in the Medi- 
terranean, even if Government refused to recognize the fact 
by reward, or by proper staff appointments ; for St. Vincent, 
autocratic as he was towards others, could roll off upon Nelson 
all his responsibilities there, — " the uncontrolled direction 
of the naval part," were his own words, — and sleep quietly. 
Despite his objections to the island itself, and his enthusiastic 
fidelity to the Neapolitan royal house. Nelson had evidently 
the presentiment that Malta must come to Great Britain, a 
solution which Ball and the IMaltese themselves were urging 
upon him. "A Neapolitan garrison would betray it to the 
first man who would bribe him,-' he wrote ; which, if true, 
left to Great Britain no other alternative than to take it her- 
self. Neither he, Troubridge, nor the sovereigns, had confi- 
dence in the fidelity of Neapolitan officers. 

The blockade of Malta was maintained with great tenacity, 
and, coupled with the maritime prostration of France in the 
Mediterranean, resulted in a complete isolation of the French 
garrison in La Valetta by sea, the Maltese people hemming it 
in by land. By the 1st of May Ball had erected a batter}^ at 
the head of the harbor, sweeping it to the entrance, so that 
the French ships, one of which was the *' Guillaume Tell," 
eighty, that had escaped from Aboukir, had to be kept in the 
coves. These affairs of Malta brought Nelson into difficult 
diplomatic relations with the Barbary States, Tunis and 
Tripoli. The island not affording sufficient food, strenuous 
efforts had to be made by him and Ball to get grain- from 
Sicily and elsewhere, a matter very difficult of accomplish- 
ment even were the transit unmolested ; but these petty 
Mussulman states, for the purposes of piracy, kept themselves 
in formal war with Naples and Portugal, and frequently 
captured vessels under the Sicilian flag carrying corn to 
Malta. The British had too much on hand now to spare 
readily the force necessary to put down these depredators, at 
whose misdeeds they had winked in quieter days ; and it 
required all Nelson's tact, combining threats with compli- 



TROUBLE AVITH BARBARY STATES. 351 

ments, and with appeals to the prejudices of believers in God 
against those wlio denied Him, to keep the marauding within 
bounds. The irrepressible activity of Bonaparte's emissaries 
also stirred the Beys up to measures friendly to France. 
''The infamous conduct of the French during the whole war, 
has at last called down the vengeance of all true Mussulraen," 
he writes to the Bey of Tunis; "and your Highness, I am 
sure, will agree with me that Divine Providence will never 
permit these infidels to God to go unpunished. The conduct 
of 3^our Highness reflects upon you the very highest honour. 
Although I have a squadron of Portuguese ships under my 
orders, I have prevented their cruizing against the vessels of 
war of 5'our Highness. For at this moment all wars should 
cease, and all the world should join in endeavouring to extir- 
pate from off the face of the earth this race of murderers, 
oppressors, and unbelievers." 

After these preliminary compliments, Nelson presents his 
grievances. He has given the passports of a British admiral 
to Sicilian vessels bond fide employed in carrying grain to the 
besiegers of the French, and to such onl}'^ ; and he must insist 
upon those passports being respected, as the vessels bearing 
them are serving the great common cause. He demands, also, 
that aid be not given to the common enemy. " I was rejoiced," 
he writes the Bashaw of Tripoli, "to find that you had re- 
nounced the treaty you had so imprudently entered into with 
some emissaries of General Bonaparte — that man of blood, 
that despoiler of the weak, that enemy of all true Musselmen ; 
for, like Satan, he only flatters that he may the more easily 
destroy ; and it is true, that since the year 1789, all French- 
men are exactly of the same disposition." His Highness, 
however, has relapsed into his former errors. " It is now my 
duty to speak out, and not to be misunderstood. That Nelson 
who has hitherto kept your powerful enemies from destroy- 
ing you, can, and will, let them loose upon you, unless the 
following terms are, in two hours, complied with. ... If 
these proper terms are not complied with, I can no longer 
prevent the Portuguese ships from acting with vigour against 
your Highness. Your Highness will, without difficulty, write 
me a letter, the substance of which will be dictated by the 
British consul." 



352 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

The vehemence with which the French are here denounced, 
thoixgh pitched in a key deemed harmonious to the ears for 
which it was immediately intended, was entirely consonant to 
the feelings which had lately taken possession of Nelson, 
They were the result, probahl}^, in part, of the anxious rancor 
bred by the uncertainties and worry of the pursuit of Bona- 
parte ; in part, also, of more direct contact than before with 
the unbridled license which the French Government and its 
generals, impelled by dire necessity and by an unquestionable 
lack of principle, had given to the system of making Avar sup- 
port war. The feebleness and corruption of the Directory had 
relaxed the reins of discipline from top to bottom, and a 
practice which finds its justification only when executed with 
the strictest method and accountability, had degenerated into 
little better than disorganized pillage. "'Down, down with 
the French ! ' is my constant prayer."' " ' Dowii, down with 
the French ! ' ought to be placed in the council-room of every 
country in the world." '/' To serve my King, and to destroy 
the French, I consider as the great order of all, from which 
little ones spring ; and if one of these little ones militate 
against it. I go back to obey the great order and object, to 
doivn, down with the damned French villains. Excuse my 
warmth ; but my blood boils at the name of a Frenchman. 
I hate them all — Royalists and Republicans." Infidels, rob- 
bers, and murderers are the characteristic terms. This detes- 
tation of the legitimate enemy spread, intensified, to those 
who supported them in Naples, — the Jacobins, as they were 
called. '' Send me word some proper heads are taken off," he 
wrote to Troubridge, " this alone Avill comfort me." " Our 
friend Troubridge had a present made him the other day, of 
the head of a Jacobin," he tells St. Vincent, '"and makes an 
apology to me, the weather being very hot, for not sending it 
here ! " Upon the copy of the letter accompanying this 
ghastly gift to him, Troubridge had written, ''A jolly fellow. 
T. Troubridge." The exasperation to which political animos- 
ities had given rise may be gauged by the brutal levity shown 
in this incident, by men of the masculine and generous 
characters of Troubridge and Nelson, and should not be 
forgotten in estimating the actions that in due consequence 
followed. 



I 



MENTAL DEPRESSION. 353 

The duties as well as the anxieties of his situation bore 
heavily upon Nelson, and may help to account, in combination 
with the tide of adverse fortune now running strongly, for 
the depression that weighed upon him. "My public corre- 
spondence, besides the business of sixteen sail-of-the-line, and 
all our commerce, is with Petersburg, Constantinople, the 
Consul at Smyrna, Egypt, the Turkish and Eussian admirals, 
Trieste, Vienna, Tuscany, Minorca, Earl St. Vincent, and Lord 
Spencer. This over, what time can I have for any private 
correspondence ? " Yet, admitting freely that there is a limit 
beyond which activity may cease to please, what has become 
of the joyous spirit, which wrote, not four years before : " This 
I like, active service or none ! " Occupying one of the most 
distinguished posts open to the Navy ; practically, and almost 
formally, independent ; at the very head and centre of the 
greatest interests, — his zeal, while preserving all its inten- 
sity, has lost all its buoyancy. "My dear Lord," he tells 
St. Vincent, alluding at the moment to his stepson Nisbet, 
"there is no true happiness in this life, and in my present 
state I could quit it with a smile." " My spirits have received 
such a shock," he writes some days after, to the wife of his 
early patron. Sir Peter Parker, "' that I think they cannot 
recover it. You who remember me always laughing and ga.y, 
would hardly believe the change ; but who can see what I 
have and be well in health? Kingdoms lost and a royal 
family in distress." "Believe me," he confides to his inti- 
mate friend Davison a month later, " my only wish is to sink 
with honour into the grave, and when that shall please God, 
I shall meet death with a smile. Not that I am insensible to 
the honours and riches my King and Country have heaped 
upon me, so much more than any officer could deserve ; yet I 
am ready to quit this world of trouble, and envy none but 
those of the estate six feet by two. " " I am at times ill 
at ease, but it is my duty to submit, and you may be sure I 
will not quit my post without absolute necessity." " What a 
state I am in ! " he writes of one of those perplexities inevi- 
table to an officer in his position. " If I go, I risk Sicily ; as 
I stay, my heart is breaking." This is not the natural temper 
of a man to whom difiiculties and perplexities had been, and 
were yet again to be, a trumpet call that stirred to animation, 

23 



854 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

a stimulant that steadied the nerves, and sent the blood 
coursing with new life through heart and brain. Mingled 
as these expressions were with despondent broodings over 
his health, even if the latter were well founded, they are 
the voice of a mind which has lost the spring of self-content. 
The sense of duty abides, but dogged, cheerless ; respondent 
rather to the force of habit than to the generous ardor of 
former days. 

For over two months after the flight to Palermo, the condi- 
tion of affairs for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was seem- 
ingly critical to the verge of desperation ; for neither the 
preparations of the Coalition, nor the hollowness of the 
French successes, were understood, and news was slow to 
reach the remote city where the Court now dwelt. The 
republican movement extended, though superficially, to the 
toe of Italy, many of the towns in Calabria planting the tree 
of liberty, and the new flag flying on the islands along the 
coast. Sicily, though hostile to the French, was discontented 
with the existing government, and disaffection there was 
feared. In that. Nelson truly observed, lay the danger. 
"Respecting an invasion of the French, I have no alarms ; if 
this island is true to itself no harm can happen." Neverthe- 
less, " it is proper to be prepared for defence, and," if 
Calabria is occupied by the French, " the first object is the 
preservation of Messina." 

For this purpose he ordered the Portuguese squadron there, 
immediately after he reached Palermo ; and, when the outlook 
grew more threatening, appealed to the Tui-kish and Russian 
admirals to send a detachment to the Straits. General Stuart, 
commanding the troops in Minorca, which had passed into the 
hands of Great Britain the previous November, was entreated 
to detail a garrison for the citadel of Messina, as no depend- 
ence was placed upon the Neapolitan troops. Stuart com- 
plied, and the citadel was occupied by two English regiments 
about the 10th of March. The danger, however, was consid- 
ered sufficiently imminent to withdraw to Palermo the trans- 
ports lying at Syracuse; a step which could not have been 
necessary had Nelson made Syracuse, as he at first intended, 
the base of operations for the British fleet, and suggests the 
idea, which he himself avows, that his own presence with the 



THE FEENCH INVADE ITALY 355 

Court was rather political than military ^ in its utility, 
dependent upon the fears of their own subjects felt by the 
sovereigns. While these measvires were being taken he 
endeavoured, though fruitlessly, to bring matters to a conclu- 
sion at Alexandria and Malta, in order to release the ships 
there employed and fetch them to the coast of Naples. 
" The moment the Emperor moves," he wrote to St. Vincent, 
*' I shall go with all the ships I can collect into the Bay of 
Naples, to create a diversion." Nothing certain can be said as 
yet, " whether all is lost or may yet be saved ; that must 
depend upon the movements of the Emperor." Yet it was the 
hand of the emperor which he had advised the King of Naples 
to force, by his ill-timed advance. 

Troubridge rejoined the Elag at Palermo on the 17th of 
March, having turned over the command in the Levant to Sir 
Sidney Smith, after an ineffectual attempt to destroy the 
French shipping in Alexandria. By this time matters had 
begun to mend. Calabria had returned to its loyalty, and the 
insurrection of the peasantry against the French was general 
throughout the country, and in the Roman State. The 
Directory, taking umbrage at the advance of Russian troops 
to the frontiers of Austria, demanded explanations from the 
latter, and when these proved unsatisfactory directed its 
armies to take the offensive. The French advanced into 
Germany on the first of March, and in Italy towards the end 
of the month. But the action of the French Government, 
though audacious and imposing, rested upon no solid founda- 
tion of efficiency in the armies, or skill in the plan of cam- 
paign. Serious reverses soon followed, and the fatally ex- 
centric position of the corps in Naples was then immediately 
apparent. 

Before this news could reach Palermo, however, Nelson had 

^ Palermo possessed a strategic advantage over Syracuse, in that, with 
westerljr M'inds, it was to windward, esjiecially as regards Naples ; and it was 
also nearer the narrowest part of the passage between Sicily and Africa, the 
highway to the Levant and Egypt. With easterly winds, the enemy of 
course could not proceed thither ; and at this time there was no enemy's force 
in the Mediterranean, so that westward movements had not to be appre- 
hended. All dangers must come from the westward. These considerations 
were doubtless present to Nelson; but the author has not found any mention 
of them by him at this period. 



356 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

sent Troubridge with four sliips-of-the-liue and some smaller 
vessels to the Bay of Naples, to blockade it, and to enter into 
communication, if possible, with the loyalists in the city. As 
the extreme reluctance of the King and Queen prevented his 
going in person, — a reason the sufficiency of which it is difficult 
to admit, — Nelson hoisted his flag on board a transport in 
the bay, and sent the flagship, in order not to diminish the 
force detailed for such important duties. Within a week the 
islands in the immediate neighborhood of Naples — Procida, 
Ischia, Capri, and the Ponzas — had again hoisted the royal 
ensign. On the 22d of April the French evacuated the city, 
with the exception of the Castle of St. Elmo, in which they 
left a garrison of five hiuidred men. In Upper Italy their 
armies were in full retreat, having been forced back from the 
Adige to the Adda, whence an urgent message was sent to 
Macdonald, Championnet's successor at Naples, to fall back 
to the northward and effect a junction with the main body, 
soon to be sorely pressed by an overwhelming force of the 
Austro-Eussians, at whose head was the famous Suwarrow. 
On the 29th the Allies entered Milan, and on the 7th of May 
the Northern French, now under the command of Moreau, had 
retired as far as Alessandria, in Piedmont. On this same day, 
Macdonald, having thrown garrisons into Capua and Gaeta, 
evacuated the kingdom of Naples, and hastened northward to 
join Moreau. With the exception of these fortified posts and 
the city of Naples, the country was now overrun by the 
Christian army, the name applied to the numerous but utterly 
undisciplined bands of rude peasantry, attached to the royal 
cause, and led by Cardinal Ruffo. The Jacobins in the city 
still held out, and had in the bay a small naval force under 
the command of Commodore Caracciolo. 

Troubridge's successes continued. A week later Salerno 
had been taken, and the royal colors were flying at Castella- 
mare, on the opposite side of the Bay from Naples, and dis- 
tant from it only twelve miles by land. Nelson questioned 
Troubridge about the return of the King, whose most evident 
political conviction was that the success of the royal cause 
was vitally connected with the safety of the royal person. 
" What are your ideas of the King's going into the Bay of 
Naples, without foreign troops ? If it should cause insurrec- 



INCURSION OF THE BREST FLEET 357 

tion [of the royalists] in Naples which did not succeed, would 
it not be worse ? The King, if a rising of loyal people took 
place, ought to be amongst them ; and that he will never con- 
sent to." " The King, God bless him ! is a philosopher," he 
had said, repeating an expression of Lady Hamilton's, refer- 
ring to the disasters which caused the headlong flight from 
Eome, through Naples, to Palermo ; " but the great Queen 
feels sensibly all that has happened," The Queen also was 
extremely fearful, and Nelson intimated to St. Vincent that 
a request would be made for British troops to protect the 
sovereigns. " Their Majesties are ready to cross th6 water 
whenever Naples is entirely cleansed. When that happy 
event arrives, and not till then, a desire will be expressed 
for the British troops to be removed from Messina into Naples 
to guard the persons of their Majesties." That Nelson should 
have considered it essential to maintain in power, by any 
means, sovereigns devoted to Great Britain, is perfectly com- 
prehensible. "What is difficult to understand is the esteem he 
continued to profess for those whose unheroic bearing so be- 
lied the words he had written six months before : " His Maj- 
esty is determined to conquer or die at the head of his army." 
Under other conditions and influences, none would have been 
more forward to express dissatisfaction and contempt. 

Withal, despite the favorable outlook of affairs and the 
most joyous season of the year, his depression of spirits con- 
tinued. '' I am far from well," he writes on the 3d of May, " and 
the good news of the success of the Austrian arms in Italy does 
not even cheer me." But in the midst of the full current of 
success, and of his own gloom, an incident suddenly occurred 
which threw everything again into confusion and doubt, and 
roused him for the time from his apathy. On the 12th of 
May a brig arrived at Palermo, with news that a French fleet 
of nineteen ships-of-the-line had escaped from Brest, and had 
been seen less than a fortnight before off Oporto, steering for 
the Mediterranean. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

From the Incursion of the French Fleet under Bruix to the Res- 
toration OF THE Royal Authority at Naples. — The Caracciolo 
Execution. — Nelson's Disoreuience to Admiral Lord Keith. 

May-July, 1799. Age 40. 

THE intention of the French to send a fleet into the Medi- 
terranean had transpired some time before, and the 
motive — to retrieve the destrnction of their naval power in 
that sea by the Battle of the Nile — was so obvious that the 
attempt was regarded as probable. As far back as the 7th 
of January, Nelson had written to Commodore Duckworth, 
commanding the detachment of four ships-of-the-line at Mi- 
norca, that he had received notification of the force expected 
from Brest. If they got into the Mediterranean, he was con- 
fident they would go first to Toulon, and he wished to con- 
cert beforehand with Duckworth, who was not under his 
orders, the steps necessary to be taken at once, if the case 
arose. He did not think, so he wrote to Ball, that they 
would venture a squadron to Malta or Alexandria, in view 
of the certain destruction wliich in the end must befall it, 
even if successful in reaching tlie jjort. 

Both remarks show that he did not look for the number 
of ships that were sent — nineteen, as the first news said, 
twenty-five, as was actually the case. An emergency so great 
and so imminent drew out all his latent strength, acute judg- 
ment, and promptitude. The brig that brought the news was 
sent off the same night to Naples, with orders to proceed from 
there to Minorca and Gibraltar, and to notify Duckworth and 
St. Vincent what Nelson intended to do. A cutter sailed at 
the same time for Malta. Troubridge and Ball were both 
directed to send or bring all their ships-of-the-line, save one 
each, to Minorca, there to unite with Duckworth. Trou- 
bridge's ships were to call off Palermo for further instruc- 



PREPARATIONS TO MEET BRUIX 359 

tions, but not to lose time by coming to anchor there. Ex- 
presses were sent to the different ports of Sicily,, in case any 
Russian or Turkish ships had arrived, to put them on their 
guard, and to request co-operation by joining the force assem- 
bling off Minorca, where Nelson reasoned Lord St. Vincent 
also would repair. To the latter he wrote: "Eight, nine, or 
ten sail of the line shall, in a few days, be off Mahon, ready 
to obey your orders (not in the port) ; " for his intention was 
that they should remain outside under sail. "You may de- 
pend upon my exertion, and I am only sorry tliat I cannot 
move ^ to your help, but this island appears to hang on my 
stay. Nothing could console the Queen this night, but my 
promise not to leave them unless the battle was to be fought 
off Sardinia." 

The next day he wrote again in similar terms, seeking to 
reconcile his promise to the Queen with his impulses, and, it 
may be said safely, with his duty. " Should yon come up- 
wards without a battle, I hope in that case you will afford me 
an opportunity of joining you ; for my heart would break to 
be near my commander-in-chief, and not assisting him at such 
a time. What a state I am in ! If I go, I risk, and more 
than risk, Sicily, and what is now safe on the Continent ; for 
we know, from experience, that more depends on opinion than 
on acts themselves. As I stay, my heart is breaking ; and, 
to mend the matter, I am seriously unwell." 

That evening, the 13th, at nine o'clock, a lieutenant arrived, 
who had been landed to the westward of Palermo by a sloop- 
of-war, the " Peterel," she not being able to beat up to the 
city against the east wind prevailing. From him Nelson 
learned that the French fleet had passed the Straits, and had 
been seen off Minorca. The next day, the "Peterel" having 
come off the port, he went alongside, and sent her on at once 
to Malta, with orders to Ball to abandon the blockade, bring- 
ing with him all his ships, and to proceed off Maritimo, a 
small island twenty miles west of Sicily, where he now pro- 
posed to concentrate his squadron and to go himself. Trou- 
bridge, having already orders to come to Palermo, needed no 
further instructions, except to bring all his ships, instead of 
leaving one at Naples. Every ship-of-the-line in the squadron, 
1 That is, in person. 



360 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

including the Portuguese, was thus summoned to join the 
Plag, in a position to cover Palermo and the approaches to 
the eastern Mediterranean. To these necessary dispositions 
was owing that the senior officer left at Naples was Captain 
Foote, who afterwards signed the articles of capitulation with 
the insurgents, which gave such offence to Kelson, and have 
occasioned much controversy in connection with his subse- 
quent action. 

Troubridge, having sailed at once on receipt of his first 
orders, arrived on the 17th with three British ships and one 
Portuguese. A heavy gale prevented Nelson getting to sea 
till the 20th, when he sailed, and was joined the next morning 
by the fourth ship from Naples. The same day came a Portu- 
guese corvette from Gibraltar and Mahon, with letters from 
St. Vincent and Duckworth. The former announced that 
the French had passed the Straits, and tliat he was about to 
start in pursuit. Duckworth, who also was asked to join off 
Maritime, declined to do so, saying that he must await the 
commander-in-chief. Nelson had of course immediately com- 
municated to the latter his change of plan. He hoped to 
collect ten sail-of-the-line, wliich, "if Duckworth reinforce me, 
will enable me to look the enemy in the face" — fourteen 
ships to nineteen ; " but should any of the Russians or Turks 
be off Malta, I hope to get a force of different nations equal 
to the enemy, when not a moment shall be lost in bringing 
them to battle." 

On the 23d of May he was off Maritime with seven ships, 
Bill not having joined yet. His spirits were fast rising, as in 
: ought he drew near the enemy. " Duckworth means to leave 
1 ■ to my fate," he wrote to Lady Hamilton. ''Never mind; 
ii I can get eleven sail together, they shall not hurt me." 
" I am under no apprehension for the safety of his Majesty's 
squadron," he said in a circular letter to his scattered vessels, 
designed to heighten their ardor ; ''on the contrary, from the 
very high state of discipline of the ships, I am confident, 
should the enemy force \is to battle, that we shall cut a very 
respectable figure ; and if Admiral Duckworth joins, not one 
moment shall be lost in my attacking the enemy." It must 
be mentioned that St. Vincent had expressed his opinion that 
the French were bound for Malta and Alexandria, and Nelson, 



PREPARATIONS TO MEET BRUIX SGI 

when he wrote these words, was hourly expecting to see their 
sails appear on the horizon. He did not know yet, however, 
that they were twenty-five, instead of nineteen, of the line. 
To St. Vincent he expressed himself with the sober, dauntless 
resolution of a consummate warrior, who recognized that op- 
portunities must be seized, and detachments, if need be, sacri- 
ficed, for the furtherance of a great common object. " Your 
, Lordship may depend that the squadron under my command 
shall never fall into the hands of the enemy ; and before we 
are destroyed, I have little doubt but the enemy will have 
their wings so completely clipped that they may be easily over- 
taken" — by you. In this temper he waited. It is this clear 
perception of the utility of his contemplated grapple with 
superior numbers, and not the headlong valor and instinct for 
fighting that unquestionably distinguished him, Avhich consti- 
tutes the excellence of Nelson's genius. This it was which 
guided him in the great Trafalgar campaign, and the lack of 
which betrayed Villeneuve at the same period to his wretched 
shortcomings. Yet, as has before been remarked, mere in- 
sight, however accurate and penetrating, ends only in itself, 
or at best falls far short of the mark, unless accompanied by 
Nelson's great power of disregarding contingencies — an in- 
spired blindness, which at the moment of decisive action sees, 
not the risks, but the one only road to possible victory. 

Whilst thus expecting an engagement which, from the dis- 
parity of numbers, could be nothing short of desperate, he 
dreAv up a codicil to his will, making to Lady Hamilton a 
bequest, in terms that show how complete were the infatua- 
tion and idealization now in possession of his mind : " I give 
and bequeath to my dear friend, Emma Hamilton, wife of the 
Eight Hon. Sir William Hamilton, a nearly round box set 
with diamonds, said to have been sent me by the mother of 
the Grand Signor, which I request she will accept (and never 
part from) as token of regard and respect for her very emi- 
nent virtues (for she, the said Emma Hamilton, possesses 
them all to such a degree that it would be doing her injustice 
was any particular one to be mentioned) from her faithful 
and affectionate friend." During this short cruise he wrote 
her almost daily, and at some length, in addition to the more 
official communications addressed to Hamilton. At this same 



362 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

period he was excusing himself to his wife for the shortness 
and infrequency of his letters : " Pray attribute it to the true 
cause — viz., that iu truth my poor hand cannot execute what 
my head tells me I ought to do." 

On the 28th of May Nelson received letters from St. Vin- 
cent, dated the 21st, off Minorca, which put him in possession 
of the movements of the enemy up to that date. The French 
fleet, under the command of Admiral Bruix, had appeared on 
the 4th of the month off Cadiz. It was then blowing a half-r 
gale of wind, and the French admiral did not care, under that 
condition, to engage the fifteen British sliips-of-the-line which 
were cruising off the harbor, under Lord Keith, who had come 
out from England the previous autumn to be St. Vincent's 
second in command. The intended junction with the Spanish 
squadron in Cadiz being thus thwarted, Bruix passed the 
Straits on the 5th, and Lord St. Vincent, having recalled 
Keith, followed on the 12th with sixteen ships. On the 20tli 
he joined Duckworth, and learned that the enemy, when last 
seen, were heading for Toulon. Keith's removal had uncov- 
ered Cadiz, and St. Vincent fully expected that the Spanish 
fleet would leave there for the Mediterranean, which it did, 
and on the 20th entered Cartagena, to the number of seven- 
teen of the line, but much crippled from a stormy passage. 
This Nelson did not yet know, nor that Bruix had reached 
Toulon on the 14th of IMay, and sailed again on the 26th for 
the eastward. 

Satisfied that the enemy would not at once come his way, 
and knowing that a vessel had passed up the Mediterranean 
from St. Vincent to put Sidney Smith on liis guard. Nelson 
ordered Ball to resume the blockade of Malta with two ships- 
of-the-line. The rest of his squadron he kept massed, and took 
to Palermo, where he arrived May 29th. Lookout ships were 
stationed off the north end of Corsica and west of Sardinia. 
"My reason for remaining in Sicily," he wrote St. Vincent, 
'•is the covering the blockade of Naples, and the certainty of 
preserving Sicily in case of an attack, for if we were to with- 
draw our ships, it would throw such a damp on the people 
that I am sure there would be no resistance." 

On the 6th of June Duckworth arrived at Palermo from the 
main fleet, with four ships-of-the-line, among them the " Fou- 



PREPARATIONS TO MEET BRUIX 363 

droyant," eighty. This ship had been designated originally for 
Nelson's flag, and he shifted to her from the "Vanguard" on 
the 8th. Duckworth brought a report that St. Vincent was 
about to give up the command and go home, on account of ill- 
health. This at once aroused Nelson's anxiety, for he had 
long felt that few superiors would have the greatness of mind 
to trust him as implicitly, and humor him as tenderly, as the 
great admiral had done. It is not every one that can handle 
an instrument of such trenchant power, yet delicate temper, 
as Nelson's sensitive genius. The combination in St. Vincent 
of perfect professional capacity with masterful strength of 
character, had made the tactful respect he showed to Nelson's 
ability peculiarly grateful to the latter ; and had won from 
him a subordination of the will, and an affection, which no 
subsequent commander-in-chief could elicit. He wrote to 
him : — , 

My dkar Lord, — We have a report that you are going home. 
This distresses us most exceedingly, and myself in particular ; so 
much so, that I have serious thoughts of returning, if that event 
should take place. But for the sake of our Country, do not quit us 
at this serious moment. I wish not to detract from the merit of 
whoever may be your successor ; but it must take a lengtli of time, 
which 1 hope the war will not give, to be in any manner a St. Vin- 
cent. We look up to you, as we have always found you, as to oiir 
Father, under whose fostering care we have been led to fame. . . . 
Give not nji a particle of your authority to any one ; be again our 
St. Vincent, and we shall be happy. 

Your affectionate Xelsox. 

This letter did not reach St. Vincent before he carried his 
purpose into effect ; but Nelson never quite forgave the aban- 
donment of the command at such a moment. In after years 
he spoke bitterly of it, as a thing he himself could not have 
done ; failing, perhaps, to realize the difference in staying 
power between forty-five and sixty-five. 

On the 2d of June, being then seventy miles southwest of 
Toulon, St. Vincent turned over to Keith the command of the 
twenty ships-of-the-line then with him, and went to Port 
Mahon. For the moment he retained in his own hands the 
charge of the station, — continued Commander-in-chief, — with 



SU THE LIFE OF NELSON 

headquarters at Minorca, and two divisions cruising : one of 
twenty ships, with Keith, between Toulon and Minorca, and 
one of sixteen, inchiding three Portuguese, under Nelson in 
the waters of Sicily. Friction between these two began at 
once. Lord Keith was an accomplished and gallant officer, 
methodical, attentive, and correct; but otherwise he rose little 
above the commonplace, and, while he could not ignore Nel- 
son's great achievements, he does not seem to have had the 
insight which could appreciate the rare merit underlying 
them, nor the sj'mpathetic temperament which could allow 
for his foibles. Nelson, exasperated at the mere fact of 
the other's succession to the command, speedily conceived 
for him an antipathy which Keith would have been more 
than mortal not to return ; but it is to the honor of the 
latter's self-command that, while insisting upon obedience from 
his brilliant junior, he bore his refractoriness with dignified 
patience. 

After St. Vincent left him, Keith continued to stand to the 
northward and eastward. On the 5th of June he received 
certain information that the French fleet, now twenty-two 
ships-of-the-line, was in Vado Bay. This word he at once sent 
on to Nelson. Next day his division was so close in with the 
Riviera, off Antibes, that it was fired upon by the shore bat- 
teries ; but the wind coming to the eastward, when off Monaco, 
did not permit it to pass east of Corsica, and, fearing that the 
French would take that route and fall upon Nelson, Keith 
detached to him two seventy-fours, which joined him on the 
IStli of June. 

At the moment of their arrival Nelson had just quitted 
Palermo for Naples, taking with him the whole squadron. 
The King of Naples had formally requested him to afford to 
the royal cause at the capital the assistance of the fleet, be- 
cause the successes of the royalists elsewhere in the kingdom 
rendered imminent an insurrection in the city against the 
republican party and the French, which held the castles ; and 
such insurrection, unless adequately supported, might either 
fail or lead to deplorable excesses. Lady Hamilton, whose 
irregular interference in State concerns receives here singular 
illustration, strongly urged this measure in a letter, written to 
the admiral after an interview with the Queen. Nelson con- 



PREPAEATIONS TO MEET BRUIX 365 

sented, took on board seventeen hundred troops, with the 
Hereditary Prince, who was to represent the King, — tlie 
latter not Avishing to go, — and was already clear of Palermo 
Bay when the two ships from Keith appeared. Gathering 
from their information that the French were bound for Naples 
or Sicily, in which his own judgment coincided, he returned 
at once into port, landed the Prince and the troops, and then 
took the squadron again off Maritimo, where he expected Ball 
and the two ships off Malta to join him without delay. " The 
French force being twenty-two sail of the line," he wrote in 
suppressed reproach to Keith, " four of which are first rates, 
the force with me being only sixteen of the line, not one of 
Avhich was of three decks, three being Portuguese, and one of 
the English being a sixty-four, very short of men, I had no 
choice left but to return to Palermo." 

"With this incident of the insufficient reinforcement sent, 
began the friction with Keith which appears more openly in 
his correspondence with others. To St. Vincent, still com- 
mander-in-chief, he wrote : '•' I send a copy of my letter to Lord 
Keith, and I have only stated my regret that his Lordship 
could not have sent me a force fit to face the enemy : but, as 
we are, I shall not get out of their way ; although, as I am, I 
cannot think myself justified in exposing the world (I may 
almost say) to be plundered by these miscreants. I trust your 
Lordship will not think me wrong in the painful determina- 
tion I conceived myself forced to make," that is, to go back to 
Palermo, "for agonized indeed was the mind of your Lord- 
ship's faithful and affectionate servant." 

Nelson appears to have felt that the return to Palermo, 
though imperative, in view of the relative forces of himself 
and the French, would not only postpone and imperil the 
restoration of the royal family, but would bring discredit upon 
himself for not seeking and fighting the enemy's fleet. "I 
shall wait off Maritimo," he wrote Keith, '' anxiously expect- 
ing such a reinforcement as may enable me to go in search of 
the enemy's fleet, when not one moment shall be lost in bring- 
ing them to battle; for," he continues, with one of those 
flashes of genius which from time to time, unconsciously to 
himself, illuminate his writings, " I consider the best defence 
for his Sicilian Majesty's dominions is to place myself along- 



366 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

side the rrench." "My situation is a cruel one," he wrote to 
Hamilton, "and I am sure Lord Keith has lowered me in the 
eyes of Europe, for they will only know of 18 sail [Ball hav- 
ing joined], and not of the description of them ; it has truly 
made me ill." But, although not justified in seeking them, 
he had off Maritinio taken a strategic position which would 
enable him to intercept their approach to either Naples or 
Sicily, "and I was firmly resolved," he wrote with another of 
his clear intuitions, "they should not pass me without a 
battle, which would so cripple them that they might be unable 
to proceed on any distant service," "On this you may de- 
pend," he had written to Lady Hamilton, on the first cruise 
off Maritimo, three weeks before, " that if my little squadron 
obeys my signal, not a ship shall fall into the hands of the 
enemy ; and I will so cut them up, that they will not be fit 
even for a summer's cruise." 

On the 20th of June, off Maritimo, he received a despatch 
from St. Vincent that a reinforcement of twelve ships-of-the- 
line from the Channel was then approaching Port Mahon, and 
that Keith, having returned thither, had left again in search 
of Bruix, whose whereabouts remained unknown. He was 
also notified that St. Vincent had resigned all his command, 
leaving Keith commander-in-chief. Kelson was convinced — 
"I knew," was his expression — that the French intended 
going to Naples. He determined now to resume his enterprise 
against the republicans in the city ; a decision which caused 
him unusual mental conflict. " I am agitated," he wrote Ham- 
ilton the same day, in a note headed " Most Secret," " but my 
resolution is fixed. For Heaven's sake suffer not any one to 
oppose it. I shall not be gone eight days. No harm can 
come to Sicily. I send my Lady and you Lord St. Vincent's 
letter. I am full of grief and anxiety. I must go. It will 
finish the war. It will give a sprig of laurel to your affection- 
ate friend. Nelson." The military dilemma of divergeut in- 
terests confronting him is plain enough, being the same that 
had " agonized " his mind in abandoning the first expedition 
to Naples on the 14th. Off Maritimo, with winds prevailing 
from the westward, he covered both Naples and Sicily, and 
could hurry to either at a moment's notice. By going to Naples 
he surrendered this advantage as regarded Sicily and the 



TRANSACTIONS AT NAPLES, JUNE, 1799 367 

Court, ill order to undertake a strictly offensive movement; 
and to this lie dreaded opposition, which would be the more 
painful, because the fears that prompted it would rest on 
arguments, the strength of which he could not but admit. On 
the 21st he was at Palermo, and after two hours' consultation 
with their Majesties and Acton, the Prime Minister, he sailed 
again, accompanied in the " Foudroyant " on this occasion by 
Sir William and Lady Hamilton, but not by the Hereditary 
Prince, nor the Sicilian troops. On the 24th, at 9 p. m., the 
flagship anchored in the Bay of Naples, the rest of the squad- 
ron remaining outside for the night. Flags of truce Avere at 
that moment flying on the castles of Uovo and Nuovo, which 
were in the hands of the Neapolitan republicans, and upon 
the frigate " Seahorse, " whose commander, Captain E. J. Foote, 
had been the senior British officer present, before Nelson's own 
appearance. The following morning the '^ Foudroyant" shifted 
farther in, near the mole, the remainder of the ships taking 
position from her, in close line of battle, about noon. 

The occurrences at Naples during the remaining days of 
June, 1799, have been the occasion of the most serious impu- 
tations ever made against Nelson's character. These imputa- 
tions are not limited to a breach of faith in disallowing a 
capitulation, asserted by accusers to have been irrevocably 
completed by authorities of final action. Nelson openly dis- 
allowed and suspended the capitulation on the ground that it 
had not been executed, and that it was also an improper trans- 
action, entered into contrary to the orders given by the King 
to Cardinal Buffo, his representative. Nelson claimed that he 
had powers direct from the King, to overrule Buffo; in virtue 
of which he did openly overrule him in this particular instance, 
because, although the treaty had been signed, it had advanced 
no further. " Never executed, and therefore no capitulation," 
was his own expression. In this he may have done wrong. 
The present writer does not think so ; but the question is one 
of military public law, as it stood at that date. Whatever the 
merit of the action otherwise, it Avas open, positive, above- 
board, and Buffo was requested to convey the knowledge of it 
to the enemy. This he refused at first to do. Subsequently, 
he did communicate to them the substance of Nelson's opin- 
ion. The latter asserted that the final surrender was com- 



368 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

pleted under full knowledge of the attitude assumed by 
him. 

The serious charges made are : first, that Nelson was not 
invested with legal authority to override lluffo; second, and 
chiefly, that not only did he break a treaty, and, as is claimed, 
deprive the enemy of rights acquired by lawful compact, but 
that he permitted, if he did not induce, them to leave their 
fortifications, and to place themselves in his power, under the 
supposition that he acquiesced in a treaty of capitulation. 
This view was summarized by Captain Foote, writing in 
1807: "I believe it is but too true that the garrisons of Uovo 
and Nuovo were taken out of these castles under the pretence 
of putting the capitulation I had signed into execution." ^ 
This charge having very recently been repeated, the author 
has recast his treatment of the subject from that pursued in 
the first editions. This paragraph, and the one preceding it, 
convey in brief outline the two contentions to be tested, — that 
of Nelson, and that of his accusers. 

It is, first, necessary to tell the transactions about Naples 
up to the date of Nelson's arrival, on the evening of June 24. 
The French having evacuated the kingdom, leaving garrisons 
only in Capua, in Gaeta, and in Fort St. Elmo, overlooking 
Naples, the Neapolitan" republicans were left to their own 
defence. Against them were advaiicing the so-called Christian 
Army, composed chiefly of Calabrian peasants and brigands, 
under the command of Cardinal Euffo, the King's Vicar- 
General, and a body of some five hundred Eussians and Turks 
from the Adriatic. The assistance of the latter had been ob- 
tained by the Chevalier Micheroux, sent to Corfu for that 
purpose by the King. His style and title was, " Minister 
plenipotentiary of the King of the Two Sicilies near the 
Eusso-Ottoman Fleet." Micheroux played a considerable part 
in the subsequent treaty, but both Foote and Nelson declined 
to recognize any authority save in Euffo. 

On June 13 the British squadron began to co-operate 
with Euffo and his allies, who then reached the Bay ; and on 
the 16th Foote reported to Nelson that the city was in Euffo's 
power, except Fort St. Elmo, held by the French, and the two 

1 Captain Foote's Vindication, London, 1810, p. 39. The italics are 
Foote's. 



I 



TKANSACTIONS AT NAPLES, JUNE, 1799 369 

lower castles, Uovo and Nuovo, iuto which the Neapolitan 
insurgents had retired. On the 17th Ruffo notified Foote that 
Nuovo was admitted to an armistice, from which Uovo stood 
aloof ; but that night a sortie was made by some of the French 
and republicans, who spiked the guns of a battery and killed a 
number of the besiegers. Eu&'o then resumed operations, 
informing Foote that negotiations were useless, but on the 
morning of the 19th, he sent word that an armistice had been 
again granted, and negotiations begun with good promise of 
success ; he therefore requested Foote to desist from all hos- 
tilities. The latter acceded, though unwillingly ; saying that 
so prolonged a cessation of arms was injurious to the common 
cause. Not hearing anything by the evening of the 20th, he 
again wrote urgently to the same effect ; but about midnight 
there was brought to him the first draft of a capitulation, 
which he signed. This then went back to the shore, was put 
into final shape, and so approved by the French commandant 
of St. Elmo, as the terms required. It then received the 
signatures of Ruffo, of Micheroux, of the Russian and Turkish 
commanders, and finally of Foote himself; the latter being 
given on the early morning of June 23. 

The document may be considered then to have been for- 
mally eomplete ; the only question being whether it was sus- 
ceptible of ratification or disallowance by superior authority. 
Ruffo, Foote, and the others held that it was not. Nelson 
maintained that it was, provided it had not received execu- 
tion. This it had not, for the second article provided that the 
garrisons should keep possession of the forts until the vessels 
that were to take them to Toulon were ready to sail, which 
was not the case when Nelson arrived. The latter also said 
that the treaty was "infamous." The term was too strong. 
The treaty, in the author's judgment, was weak and culpable, — 
weak, because, as Fort St. Elmo dominated the lower castles, 
terms so very favorable should not have been granted unless St. 
Elmo was included in the surrender; ^ and culpable, because 
Ruffo's orders were disobeyed in granting such liberal terms to 

1 For Foote's opinion of the terms, see Vindication, pp. 154, 155, 190, 191 ; 
and of the commanding position of St. Ehiio, pp. 137, 141. The unfavorable 
opinion of Count Thurn, the senior Neapolitan naval officer present, is given 
by Maresca (Archivio Storico per le Proviucie Napoletane, vol. xix. p. 508). 

24 



370 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

men of tlie political and military antecedents of many of those 
shut up in the castles.^ These considerations do not, however, 
affect the character of Nelson's act in nullifying the treaty. 
That depends upon the questions, whether Euffo's act was 
from the first absolutely final, and, if it were not, whether the 
method of revoking it were fair and honorable. 

Before proceeding to the consideration of these questions, 
it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that there were 
before Nelson two principal conditions, which have been con- 
founded one with another. There was an Armistice, which 
had lasted since the morning of the 19th ; and there was the 
Treaty of Capitulation, signed on the morning of the 23d. 
The Armistice began for the purpose of negotiation, and con- 
tinued after the signature, awaiting the execution of the terms, 
which was to take place when the vessels were ready to em- 
bark the garrisons. This seems so clear as to be unnecessary 
to mention, had it not been affirmed in a serious historical 
magazine that Nelson persisted in styling the Treaty an 
Armistice ; "^ upon which an elaborate argument is founded. 
Nelson's own words are, " I used every argument in my power 
to convince the Cardinal that the Treaty and Armistice was at 
an end by the coming of the fleet." ^ If it be thought that the 
singular verb " was " shows confusion in Nelson's mind, the 
reply is, not only was his grammar notoriously careless,* but 
that a treaty and an armistice are very different things. 
Thus Foote, Nelson's chief English accuser, says, " A treaty 
may be infamous ; an armistice, or cessation from hostilities, 
cannot deserve this term. It is only a step towards an accom- 
modation." Without accepting Foote's dictum as to the 
infamy of either, the distinction is obvious, and the undeniable 
truth is that there was an armistice and there was a treaty. 

The confusion, introduced and asserted by others, but which 
did not exist in Nelson's mind, is due probably to the fact that 

1 See the King's letter of May 1, to Ruffo (Dumas, 1 Boiboiii di Napoli, 
vol. V. p. 240); and of June 17 (p. 253). 

2 English Historical Review, April, 1898, p. 273, and p. 275, note 1. 
s Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 393. (Author's italics.) 

4 Thus, in the same letter. Nelson writes: "Under this opinion the 
Rebels came out of the Castles, which was instantly occupied by the Marines 
of the squadron." (Ibid.) 



DISALLOWS CAPITULATION 371 

before he saw Foote he had received word — erroneous — that 
an Armistice had been granted, by the terms of which there 
was to be no fighting for twenty-one days ; ^ at tlie end of 
which, if not relieved, the garrisons were to march out with 
the honors of war. Such an Armistice — by no means unpre- 
cedented ^ — though so called, is more than an armistice, for 
it agrees to more than a stoppage of hostilities. To it Nelson 
applied the term " infamous." After seeing Foote, aud learn- 
ing the actual state of affairs, he speaks (in the same letter) 
of the infamous " terms " entered into with the Eebels. These 
terms were much the same, though not exactly, as in the sup- 
posed Armistice, but they were embodied in a Capitulation, in 
which no mention of an armistice occurs from first to last. 
Hamilton, writing for iSTelson to Kuffo of the same, calls 
it the *' capitulation," ^ not the armistice ; and that the 
distinction was understood both by Hamilton and by Kelson is 
clear from the fact that the latter formally disapproved and 
prevented the capitulation, sending Kuffo the information, 
together with papers to the same effect to be sent in to the 
enemy. This was positive action, taken independent of Euffo, 
and so finished ; after which — not before — the question was 
put to Euffo, " If Lord Nelson breaks the Armistice, will your 
Eminence assist him ? " The manner and the order in which 
the events are told by Nelson, and his own course described, in 
his letter of June 27 to Keith, ^ show that he disapproved and 
suspended the Capitulation, by his own powers, without consult- 
ing Euffo ; but that concerning the Armistice, though he held 
it to be at an end by the mere arrival of the fleet, he would not 
take the step of actively breaking it — though he at first fully 
intended to do so — without previous consultation. This 
separation in treatment of the two things shows conclusively 
the distinction between them in his own mind.^ 



1 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 384. 

2 As at Calvi, in 1794. See ante, p. 124. 
^ George Rose's Diaries, vol. i. p. 236. 

* Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 392. 

^ That the Treaty and the Armistice had separate and independent exist- 
ences, is an historical fact, beyond doubt. That Nelson so understood them 
re(|uires to be deduced ; that is, to those who doubt his clear-headedness or his 
honesty. Like men generally, when things are clear in their own minds, he 



372 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

The treaty, as finally signed, — and afterwards suspended 
by him, — read as follows : — 

LIBERTY. EQUALITY. 

NEAPOLITAN REPUBLIC. 

Castel Nuovo, 2d Messidor,^ Year 7 of Liberty. 

Citizen Massa, General of Artillery, and Commandant of Castel 
Nuovo, the surrender of Castel Uovo having been demanded by 
Commandant Foote of the English Navy ; and afterwards that of 
Castel Nuovo by Cardinal Ruffo, Vicar General of the Kingdom of 
Naples, by Chevalier Micheroux, Minister Plenipotentiary of H. M. 
the King of the Two Sicilies near the Russo-Ottoman fleet, and by 
the commandant in chief of the Ottoman troops ; the Council of "War 
of Castel Nuovo assembled, and having deliberated upon the said 
samnions, resolved that the two forts shall be delivered to the 
commanders of the troops of the above named by means of an honor- 
able capitulation, and after having communicated to the commandant 
of Fort St. Ehno the motives for the said surrender, in consequence 
the said Council has drawn up the articles of the following capitu- 
lation without the acceptance of which the surrender of the forts 
cannot take place. 

Article 1. The Forts Nuovo and Uovo shall be delivered to the 
Commanders of the Troops of H. M. tlie King of the Two Sicilies, 
and of those of his Allies, the King of England, the Emperor of all 
the Russias, and tlie Ottoman Porte, with all warlike stores, pro- 
visions, artillery, and effects of every kind now in the magazines, of 
which an inventory shall be made by Commissaries on both sides, 
after the present capitulation is signed. 

Article 2. The Troops composing the Garrisons shall keep pos- 
session of their Forts, until the Vessels which shall be spoken of 
hereafter, destined to convey such as are desirous of going to Toulon, 
are ready to sail.^ 

did not suspect misunderstanding in others ; consequently, intent only on 
the business before him, he did not i)rovide for posterity a categorical declara- 
tion that he was conscious of a very obvious difference. 

1 June 20. 

- The first draft here contained these additional woi-ds : "The evacuation 
shall not take place until the moment of embarcation " (Vindication, p. 195). 
These do not appear in the final terms. This might have been important, 
because Article 2 fixes the time when, by evacuation, the treaty should re- 
ceive actual execution, as distinguished from completeness of form. As it 
was, Nelson arrived before the transports were ready, and consequently found 



TERMS OF CAPITULATION 373 

Article 3. The Garrisons shall march out with the honors of war, 
with arms, and baggage, drums beating, colors flying, matches lighted, 
and each with two pieces of artillery ; they shall lay down their arms 
on the beach. 

Article 4. Persons and Property, both movable and immovable, 
of every individual of the two Garrisons, shall be respected and 
guaranteed. 

Article 5. All the said individuals shall have their choice of em- 
barking on board the cartels, which shall be furnished' to carry them 
to Toulon, or of remaining at Naples without being molested, either 
in their persons or families. 

Article 6. The conditions contained in the present Capitulation 
are common to every person of both sexes now in the Forts. 

Article 7. The same conditions shall hold with respect to all the 
prisoners which the Troops of His IMajesty the King of the Two Sici- 
lies, and those of his Allies, may have made from the Republican 
troops, in the different engagements which have taken place before 
the blockade of the Forts. 

Article 8. Messieurs, the Archbishop of Salerno, Micheroux, 
Dillon, and the Bishop of Avellino, detained in the Forts, shall be 
delivered to the Commandant of Fort St. Elmo, where they shall 
remain as hostages, until the arrival of the individuals, sent to 
Toulon, shall be ascertained. 

Article 9. All the other hostages and State prisoners, confined in 
the two Forts, shall be set at liberty, immediately after the present 
Capitulation is signed. 

Article 10. None of the Articles of the said Capitulation can be 
put into execution until after they shall have been fully approved by 
the Commandant of Fort St. Elmo. 

Thirty-six hours after Foote signed, Nelson arrived, and as 
soon as he saw the flag of truce flying from the forts and from 
the " Seahorse," he made a signal annulling the truce. -^ This 
was before he saw Foote, ^ who, by the log of the " Seahorse," 
came on board outside of the harbor at 4 p. m., having got the 
ship under way to meet the admiral.^ Shortly after his inter- 
view with Foote, who brought with him a copy of the capitula- 
tion, Nelson sent ahead of the flagship, in a pulling boat, 

the Piepublicans still in possession of the forts. He therefore claimed, and 
undoubtedly believed, that the treaty could rightfully be suspended, because 
not executed. 

1 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 392. 2 Vindication, p. 71. 

3 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 494. 



374 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Troubridge and Ball — two of his most trusted captains — 
to visit Euffo. These officers carried with them a letter to 
the Cardinal/ written in the name of Nelson by Sir William 
Hamilton, who seems throughout to have accepted a minis- 
terial position between Nelson, as his principal, and the other 
parties to these transactions. In this letter it was stated 
that Nelson, having seen the treaty, entirely disapproved of 
it; that he Would not remain neuter with the fleet; and that 
the two captains were fully informed of his sentiments and 
would explain them to his Eminence. He added that he 
hoped the Cardinal would agree with him, and that to-morrow 
(the 2oth), at break of day, they would be able to act in con- 
cert. Besides the letter the captains carried with them two 
papers. 2 Of these, one, addressed to the French in St. Elmo, 
demanded their surrender within two hours. ^ The other, to 
the Kepublicans in Uovo and Nuovo, informed them that they 
would not be permitted " to embark or to quit those places. 
They must surrender themselves to His Majesty's Royal 
mercy." ^ 

Together with the letter and the papers already mentioned, 
the captains probably took with them anotlier paper,^ in which 
Nelson, taking for his text the supposed armistice for twenty- 
one days, reported to him before his arrival, had developed 
his argument to prove that such a compact, which was of the 
nature of a treaty rather than of an armistice, could be an- 
nulled by a superior power appearing on the scene. This paper 
Ruffo had, either from the captains, or from Nelson himself 
the next day ; for on it is noted, in Nelson's hand, " Bead 
and explained, and rejected by the Cardinal." ° 

Buffo absolutely refused to send into the castles the papers 
brought by the captains, and upon Troubridge asking him 
whether he would co-operate with Nelson, if the latter broke 
the armistice, he said he would not. After much communica- 
tion, he decided to see Nelson personally, and went on board 

1 Rose's Diaries, etc. vol. i. p. 236. In a facsimile given by Sacchinelli 
the hour of writing appears to have been 5 P. M. 

2 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 392. ^ Ibid. p. 386. 
* Ibid. 5 Ibid. p. 384. 
6 Ibid. p. 386. 



NELSON AND RUFFO 375 

the flagship^ the afternoon of the 25th. ^ A long and stormy 
interview followed, in which neither party yielded his ground, 
and which ended in Nelson defining his status in the follow- 
ing written opinion, given to the Cardinal : — 

FouDKOYANT, 26tli3 June, 1799. 

Rear Admiral Lord Nelson arrived with the British fleet the 2Jrth 
June in the Bay of Naples, and found a treaty entered into with the 
Rebels, which, in his opinion, cannot be carried into execution, with- 
out the approbation of his Sicilian Majesty.* 

Ruffo then went on shore, and that evening, the 25th, he 
sent into Castel Nuovo a letter addressed to the commandant, 
Massa, as follows : 

" Although he liiniself and the rejireseutatives of the allies held as 
sacred and inviolable the treaty of capitulation of the castles, never- 
theless the rear-admiral of the English squadi'ou was not wiUing to 
recognize it, and therefore the garrisons were at liberty to avail them- 
selves of the 5th article of the capitulation, as the patriots of St. 
Martin's Hill liad done, who liad all departed by land; so he made to 
them this communication, in order that, considering that tlie English 
commanded the sea, the garrisons might take the resolution which 
best pleased them." ^ 

At the same time he had proclamation made throughout the 
city, and notices posted, announcing the surrender of the 
castles, and forbidding any molestation of the members of 
the garrison, in goods or person, under penalty of death. "^ 

As the garrisons had not yet embarked, although many of 
their number had been stealing away, even before the j^^'^j'-i 
of capitulation was framed,'' and throughout the succeeding 

1 Nelson to Keith, Nicola.s, vol. iii. p. 392. 

2 The time of the interview is fi.xed by the following entry in the log of the 
flagship, regard being had to the sea-day, which began twelve lionrs before the 
civil day : " Wednesday, 26th, Sainted a Cardinal who came on board with 
13 guns. A.M. Employed occasionally." (Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 508.) 

^ Sea-time. 

* From Nelson's Order Book, Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 388. 

5 Maresca, Arch. Stor. Prov. Nap., vol. xix. p. 521. 

6 Ibid. ; fpioted from the Diario Napol., of June 25, 1799. 

■^ " Ever since this morning (June 19), from the moment they began to 
treat about a capitulation, a great many began to desert from the two castles," 
etc, Ruifo to Foote, Vindication, p. 185. (Author's italics.) 



376 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

days, it cannot be said, in view of the above, that they had no 
warning of Nelson's attitude. Doubtless, in saying thus much, 
and yet omitting — if he adhered to his first refusal — to send 
in the papers bearing Nelson's own words, Euffo did not deal 
candidly with them; so much so, indeed, that it is fairly open 
to belief that he may similarly have equivocated to the 
admiral, who stated positively, and immediately after the 
transactions,^ that the rebels came out of the castles "under 
this opinion " ^ and " with this knowledge," ^ both which were 
passed to Ruffo to be communicated, and could by him have 
been transmitted, if he chose. 
Massa replied for the garrison : 

" We have given to your letter the interpretation which it deserved. 
Firm, however, in our duties, we shall religiously observe the articles 
of the treaty, convinced that an equal obligation should be main- 
tained by all the contracting parties who have therein solemnly taken 
part. For the rest we cannot be either surprised or intimidated, and 
we shall resume a hostile attitude whenever it may happen that you 
constrain us thereto." * 

He then requested an escort for a messenger to communi- 
cate with St. Elmo on the matter. 

" From these two letters," remarks Maresca,^ ** it appears 
that we must deduce, even admitting that Nelson did not 
directly send in his Declaration, that the patriots of the 
castles were made acquainted with his intentions by means of 
Euffo's letter." 

The author has had the good fortune to find evidence, hith- 
erto unquoted, strongly corroborative of this deduction. The 
same evening, June 25, Kuffo wrote to Nelson also, informing 
him that " the letter " had then gone forward to the castles, 
that it was to be hoped they would surrender at discretion, 
but, as they might decide to attack, he wished a reinforcement 

1 To Keith, on June 27 (Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 393 ; and to Earl Spencer, on 
July 13 (Ibid., p. 406). 

2 Nelson's Opinion (Ibid., pp. 388, 393). 

^ Of Nelson's Opinion, and of his Declaration to the Eebels, Ibid., pp. 
386, 388. 

* Sacchinelli, Memorie suUa Vita del Cavdinale Ruffo, Rome, 1895, pp. 
233, 234 (Maresca, 522). 

^ Archivio Storico per le Prov. Nap., vol. xix. p. 522. 



NELSON AND RUFFO 377 

of 1,200 men might be lauded.^ The contents of " the letter " 
are not specified, which indicates that Nelson knew them, while 
the results expected tell us what its nature was, and that, in the 
matter of the Treaty, Euffo, as Acton afterwards wrote,^ had 
yielded to Nelson so far as to send the latter's Declaration to 
the garrisons, in substance, if not in its exact words. This 
step towards a compromise, by which the two chiefs might act 
in accord, was met by a corresponding concession, concerning 
the Armistice, on the part of Nelson. He apparently did not 
receive RufEo's letter of the evening of the 25th until the 26th 
was well advanced, — "1 am just honoured with 3'our Excel- 
lency's letter," — but at an earlier hour Hamilton had written 
in his name to the Cardinal, as follows : — 

" Lord Nelson begs me to assure your Eminence that he is resolved 
to do nothing which can break the armistice which your Eminence 
has accorded to the castles of Naples. "^ 

This promise referred explicitly to the Armistice, and 
gave no assurances concerning his future action upon the 
Capitulation. This, Nelson had said in writing, "cannot be 
carried into effect without the approval of the King ; " and 
that opinion had not been recalled — could not be recalled, 
effectively, except by a written paper, the existence of which 
has never been even suggested. The Treaty, so far as Nelson 
was concerned, remained suspended, but the Armistice was to 
continue. 

The wording of this letter not only expresses the decisive 
conclusion reached by Nelson after a night's reflection, but 
appears also to confirm an arrangement already conditionally 
reached. In short, as Hamilton wrote to Acton, " If one can- 
not do exactly as one wishes, one must do the best one can, 
and that is what Lord Nelson has done."^ It was inexpe- 
dient, having in view Ruffo's attitude, to proceed to hostilities, 
as at first intended. If the Cardinal would acquiesce in the 
annulling of the treaty, in submission to the Admiral's powers, 

1 British Museum, Nelson MSS., ^||A. 

2 Nicolas, vol. vii. p. clxxxvi. 

3 Sacchinelli, p. 236. 

* Dumas, I Borboni di Napoli, vol. iv. p. 89. 



378 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and would send in the latter 's declaration to that effect, — 
though refusing to join in it, — Nelson would continue the 
armistice. This concession met Ruffo's leading idea, which 
was to save the city from further injury, not only by stop- 
ping fighting, but also by releasing the regular troops avail- 
able, to suppress the outrages increasingly committed by 
Ruffo's undisciplined forces, by the lazzaroni, and by the 
Turkish auxiliaries. Such seem to be conclusions fairly 
deducible from Ruffo's letter of the 25th, and from the 
following reply by Nelson on the 26th. The latter is 
undated, but the date is fixed by the reference to that 
written by Hamilton. 

" I am just honoured with Your Emiuency's letter ; aud as His 
Excellency Sir William llaiiiiltoii has v/rote you this morning, that 
1 will not on any consideration break tlie Armistice entered into by 
you, I hope Your Eniinency will be satisfied that I am supporting 
your ideas. 1 send once more Caj)tains Troubridge aud Ball, to 
arrange witli your Eminency everything relative to an attack on St. 
Elmo ; whenever your army aud cannon are ready to proceed against 
it, I will land 1200 men to go with them, under the present Armis- 
tice. I have only to rejoice that His Britannic Majesty's fleet is 
here, to secure tlie city of Naples from all attacks by sea, — I 
am, &c. NELSo^^"^ 

It will be noticed that the purpose of the present mission 
of Troubridge and Ball is strictly defined, and, because defined, 
limited. They were to make arrangements for an attack upon 
St. Elmo. During the interview Ruffo, according to Sacchi- 
nelli, was by them assured that Nelson " does not oppose the 
execution of the Capitulation." Sacchinelli states further that 
Troubridge drew up the following paper, based on this alleged 
assurance : — 

" Captains Troubridge and Ball have authority, on the part of 
Lord Nelson, to declare to his Eminence that his Lordship will not 
oppose the embarkation of the Rebels and of the people who compose 
the garrison of the castles Uovo and Nuovo." 

It is to be remarked that the one statement, "does not op- 
pose the execution of the Capitulation," is not identical with 

1 From Nelson's Letter Book, Nicolas, vol. ill. p. 394. 



NELSON AND IIUFFO 379 



that of the alleged consequent paper, " will not oppose the 
embarkation." This effort to confuse two distinct things re- 
sembles closely the attempt to confound Avniistice and Capitu- 
lation. Further, Sacchinelli does not give at all Nelson's own 
letter, last quoted, but attributes the captains' visit to bearing 
Hamilton's preceding letter of the same day. "This declara- 
tion," he states, "Troubridge wrote with his oivii hand, hnt was 
not willing to sign it, saying that they had been charged and ac- 
credited with the letter of June 24 to confer verbally concern- 
ing military operations, and not at all, in writing, concerning 
affairs belonging to diplomacy." ^ It is clear from this that 
Sacchinelli, though Kuffo's secretary, was imperfectly informed 
as to the details of what happened. Not only is he ignorant 
of Nelson's letter, which certainly was brought by the captains, 
but he attributes to Hamilton's of June 24th a scope which 
pertains only to Nelson's of the 2Gth. Both these were cer- 
tainly carried by the captains, while it is not certain that they 
took Hamilton's of the 26th. In the letter of the 24th, the 
mission of the captains was clearly diplomatic. They were to 
convey to the Cardinal Nelson's disapproval of the Capitula- 
tion, and his intention not to remain neuter. This agrees with 
Nelson's statement in his letter of the 27th to Keith, " I sent 
Captains Troubridge and Ball instantly to the Cardinal Vicar- 
General, to represent my opinion of the infamous terms en- 
tered into with the Kebels, and also two papers which I 
enclose." These papers were the Summons to the French and 
the Declaration to the Rebels ; both part of the diplomacy of 
war. By this letter of the 24th they were accredited as " fully 
informed of Lord Nelson's sentiments and will have the honour 
to explain them " — verbally, of course — " to your Eminence." 
These functions are all diplomatic — negotiatory — in charac- 
ter, and that letter goes no further than to hope for agreement 
with the Cardinal, so that military operations may proceed. 
There is in it no mention of military arrangements as part of 
the captains' then mission, although there is in that of the 
26th ; and at the very least it is clear that their function on 
the 24th was not limited, as Sacchinelli states that they said, 
to military operations. Finally, the declaration which it is 

1 Sacchinelli, p. 236, and Appendix, Facsinule c. (Author's italics. ) 



380 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

said the captains refiised to sign is not in Troubridge's hand, 
as alleged. The author has a letter of Troubridge's, written 
in January, 1799, which differs distinctly from the facsimile 
of the declaration given by Sacchinelli. 

The attempt to implicate Nelson as partner in a disreputable 
trick, upon evidence as faulty as this, is mere futile prevarica- 
tion. It may be tliat the captains were asked to sign such a 
paper ; although Sacchinelli, by stating that Troubridg© wrote 
it, invalidates his own testimony, — showing that he is willing 
to make a statement of infamous import, when he was not 
eye-witness, nor had adequate proof. The captains, however, 
had neither authority nor power, direct hor indirect, so to 
pledge Nelson, by word or script, as Avas perfectly known to 
Kuffo ; for he had in his hands the letter they brought him 
from Nelson, defining their present mission, viz, to arrange 
for the attack on St. Elmo. To say, as some have, that, be- 
cause accredited, two days before, "as fully informed of Lord 
Nelson's sentiments," upon one subject, of a specific character, 
they were equally accredited with knowledge of his views, and 
with authority to express them, on another subject, when sent 
upon a second mission, having no relation to the former, but 
clearly defined and limited, would be to introduce anarchy into 
negotiation. The verbal assurance of an envoy, sent as Trou- 
bridge and Ball then were, is of no weight against two written 
declarations of their principal, close at hand, viz. : that the 
capitulation could not be carried into effect without the King's 
approval, and that they were sent to arrange for an attack 
on St. Elmo. Both these E-uffo had in his hands; and only 
a written revocation of the former could justify him in assum- 
ing it to be withdrawn. There is not the slightest proof, nor 
even indication, that Nelson by letter or by word receded from 
his attitude towards the Capitulation. He regarded it as be- 
yond his powers. An armistice — a cessation of hostilities — 
was within his powers ; and this he undertook to observe. 

After stating that the captains refused to sign, Sacchinelli 
continues: ''The Cardinal, although he suspected that there 
might here be bad faith, not wishing to dispute with those two 
captains, concerned himself no farther than to charge Minister 
Micheroux to accompany them to the castles, to concert with 
the republican commanders the execution of the stipulated 



NELSON AND RUFFO 381 

articles." The insinuation of the last few words, that the 
execution of the treaty, which Nelson had unwaveringly 
refused, was now arranged by his representatives with the 
other party, becomes an explicit affirmation, a few lines on. 
" At the end of some hours Micheroux reported to the Cardi- 
nal that, thanks to God, all had been arranged by common 
accord." These words end a paragraph, and may be assumed 
therefore to be all that Micheroux reported. Common accord 
is stated, but what was arranged is left to inference. What 
follows is Sacchinelli's inference, which, in view of the loose- 
ness of his other statements, must go for what it is worth. 
" The English themselves executed that treaty, which at first 
they were unwilling to recognize. They disembarked some 
hundreds of marines, and, the republicans having embarked, 
took possession of CaStel Nuovo," etc. It is clear in this last 
quotation that Sacchinelli assumes, in face of the Cardinal's 
distrust, that the embarkation of the republicans and the tak- 
ing possession of the castles prove Nelson's acceptance of the 
Treaty. It is equally clear to a careful reader that the infer- 
ence is far from inevitable, and that the two acts may equally 
indicate the submission of the rebels to Nelson's terms. This 
Nelson explicitly affirmed to be the case in two letters written 
within three weeks of the transaction to the men to whom he 
was cliieiiy responsible — his Commander-in-Chief and the 
First Lord. "The Rebels came out of the Castles under tliis 
opinion," ^ " with this knowledge." ^ 

High as Nelson's own reputation is, it is nevertheless for- 
tunate that the stigma of Sacchinelli is rebutted not by that 
alone, nor yet by Sacchinelli's own carelessness of statement, 
but by the share borne in these transactions by Ball and 
Troubridge. Of the latter especially, who, as the senior of 
the two, stood for their joint action, St. Vincent said, "his 
honour and his courage are as bright as his sword." Is it to 
be believed that such a man gave assurances to which he 
refused to sign his name, and deceived even rebels — much 
as he hated them — when they were trusting to his honor, 
with their lives on the stake ? Further, Clarke, the biographer 
of Nelson, writing to Captain Foote, Nelson's bitterest English 
assailant, quotes two other captains of the fleet as cognizant 

1 To Keith, Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 393. " To Spencer, Ibid. p. 406. 



382 THE LIFE OF KELSON 

of Nelson's action. ''From the conversation I had with 
Admiral Foley and with Hardy, and from seeing the King of 
Sicily's private letter in his own hand to Ruffo, I was inclined 
to think more favourably of Lord Nelson's conduct." ^ This 
conversation was after Nelson's death, and, though somewhat 
vague in allusion, it is clear that the opinion of these two 
honorable men, present throughout, could not have been that 
the garrisons on surrendering were deceived by Nelson or his 
representatives. Such also is the deliberate judgment of the 
Italian Maresca, writing in these present days (1894), when 
passionate prepossession has given place to historical research 
and deliberate judgment, and who has devoted especial atten- 
tion to tliese transactions. He is far from approving the sub- 
sequent treatment of the prisoners, but concerning these facts he 
says : " It is allowable to believe that Micheroux with the two 
Englishmen arranged with the commandants of the forts that 
the capitulation should be executed upon lines subordinated 
to Nelson's declarations. That it should receive unconditional 
effect after the declarations of the admiral, and after the en- 
forced adhesion of Ruffo, '•^ was no longer to be thought of. 
Only an unconditional surrender could at that moment be 
entertained; and, if conditions were offered, they could only 
have been briefly these : that the patriots should give up the 
castles, purely and simply, that those who had declared their 
wish to go to Toulon should embark and remain in the roads, 
that the others should stay in the forts, until the determina- 
tion of the King, in the case of each, should be known." ^ 

That afternoon the garrisons quitted Uovo and Nuovo, 
those who so elected embarking in the vessels which were 
now ready ; and in them they remained undisturbed, at the 
mole, during the 27th. The surrendered castles Avere occu- 
pied on the evening of the 26th by British marines. On tiie 
27th Nelson requested of Euffo that these should be relieved 
by two or three hundred Neapolitan soldiers, in order that the 

^ Vindication, p. 56. 

2 Maresca agrees with the German Hliffer in thinking, contrary to Sacchi- 
nelli, that Ruffo ended by .submitting to Nelson's decision. He thus accepts 
Acton's words in his letter of August 1, 1799, to Nelson: "The Cardinal 
3'ielded to your wise and steady declaration." (Nicolas, vol vii. p. clxxxvi.) 

3 Archivio Storico, 1894, pp. 523-526. 



NELSON'S POWERS AT NAPLES 383 

British and Russian troops might proceed with the attack on 
St. Elmo.^ On the 28th, early, a despatch, dated the 25th, ^ 
was received from Palermo, from the contents of which Nelson 
inferred, correctly, that the terms of the Capitulation could 
not be approved by the King. He then wrote to the Cardinal, 
announcing the fact, and that he was about to seize and make 
sure of those who had embarked.^ Before noon of the same 
day,^ the vessels were brought out from the mole and anchored 
under the guns of the fleet ; some of the ringleaders being 
transferred to British ships for safer keeping. The transac- 
tion, as far as Nelson was concerned in it, was completed 
by holding them until the King's arrival, on the 10th of 
July. 

So far the author's effort has been confined to stating clearly 
and fully just what Nelson did, in order to demonstrate that 
his conduct throughout was open and consistent. This it 
was, whatever judgment may be passed upon the correctness 
of the opinion which he avowed, and upon which he acted, 
viz. that he not only had a right to suspend the Capitulation, 
because, though signed, it had not been executed, but that it 
was his bounden duty so to do ; having both legal power and 
adequate force to prevent its execution. 

It remains to consider what was the obligation under which 
he conceived himself to lie, and what was the authority in law 
by which he assumed to act. The reply, which it is purposed 
to substantiate, is that he regarded himself as, and for the time 
being actually was, the representative of the King of the Two 
Sicilies, as well as the admiral of the British fleet. As repre- 
sentative, he was charged with the interests and honor of the 
Sovereign and had authority over all Neapolitan officials ; as 
admiral, he wielded power to enforce obedience, if refused. 

1 Diaries, etc. of Geo. Rose, vol. i. p. 2-37. 

2 On June 25 Acton wrote to Hiimilton three letters (Egerton MSS. Br. 
Museum 2640 ; Nos. 267, 269, 271). The first of these, sent by a Neapolitan 
felucca "with the utmost speed," was in reply to Hamilton's of the 23d, 
which had transmitted the erroneous intelligence of a twenty-one days' armis- 
tice, after which the republicans were to march out, if not before relieved. 
From the tenor of all these, it was clear that the terms, wheii known, would 
not be approved. 

2 Diaries, etc. of Geo. Rose, vol. i. p. 238. 
* Foudroyant's Log, Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 508. 



384 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Considering the terms of the Capitulation to be contrary to 
the interests and the honor of the Kingdom, he was under 
an obligation to prevent their going into etfect, until the 
King's decision, becoming known, should supersede his own 
discretion. 

The proof of Nelson's commission to act for the King goes 
back of June 21, the day of his second departure from Palermo. 
It is admitted that no written instructions have been found 
bearing that date, or specifically issued for that occasion. It 
must be remembered that the mission which he then under- 
took, and carried through to the results which we have been 
considering, was only the resumption of a similar task, begun 
upon the 13th of June. Though then interrupted, the trans- 
action was in effect continuous ; postponed, not abandoned. 
The only modification introduced on the second occasion was 
in the nature of verbal instructions, consequent upon later 
intelligence, which in no wise affected his powers ; for these 
had been amply defined on the first occasion, and were indeed 
so extensive as scarcely to admit of enlargement. 

Looking to Xelson's arranged departure on the first occa- 
sion, the King had on the 10th of June addressed him a letter, 
in which, after defining the causes which then made it expedi- 
ent that the fleet should go to Naples, taking with it Neapoli- 
tan troops (as before mentioned),^ he proceeds thus: "This 
measure, without your valuable assistance and direction, can- 
not produce the necessary result. I have recourse, therefore, 
to you, my Lord, to obtain both the one and the other, so that, 
this Kingdom being speedily delivered from the scourge which 
it has experienced, I may henceforwai'd be in a condition to 
perform the engagements contracted, which duty and reason 
prescribe. I send, therefore, a copy of the instructions I give 
to the superior generals, and ivliich I forward to those on the 
Continent,''^ i. e. to Ruffo in principal, as Vicar-General, and 
to others ; among whom doubtless Micheroux. " At the head 
of these [generals] I have placed my son, whom I trust to 
your friendly assistance, so that his first steps in the present 
critical career which he will have to run, may be guided by 
your wise advice, requesting you not only to help him with 
your powerful aid, hut that you ivill always act p>rincipally, 

1 Ante, p. 364. 



I 



NELSON'S POWERS AT NAPLES 385 

as your forces are the true means and support on which I rest 
my future hopes, as they have hitherto been my safety." ^ 

The Instructions to the generals, only alluded to here, are 
clearly for Nelson's informafcion, as to his own authority, 
in them set forth, and for his guidance in his relations 
with the Neapolitan officers. They indicate their duties to- 
wards himself, towards the Prince, and towards Euffo, whose 
position Avould be radically affected by the arrival of the new- 
comers and by the instructions they carried. The articles of 
the Instructions which are decisive as to Nelson's powers will 
alone be quoted ; but readers who wish to scrutinize closely 
the regularity of his procedure, as distinguished from the 
rightfulness of his action, can study the entire document.^ 

" Article 4. All the miUlary and political operations shall be agreed 
upon by the Prince Eoyal and Admiral Lord Nelson. The opinion 
of this latter always to have a preponderance, on account of the re- 
spect due to his experience, as well as to the forces under his com- 
mand, which will determine the operations ; and also because we are 
so deeply indebted to him for the zeal and attachment of which he 
has given so many proofs. Therefore, should the attack take place, 
the employment of tlie royal [Neapolitan] forces, and all other means 
tending to obtain the surrender of Naples, shall be thus decided. 

" 7. When Naples shall be entirely surrendered and subdued, the 
Vicar-General [Ruifo] shall at once take possession of the entire gov- 
ernment of the Kingdom; and to this intent will receive from the 
Prince Royal the King's new ratification of this his commission and 
charge, witli all the particular determination that the circumstance 
requires, and any rules that the importance of the time and special 
considerations indispensably demand. 

" 10. The acts of clemency concerning the noted offenders, and the 
pardoning of the same, are reserved for the King, excepting tliose stip- 
ulated in the articles of Capitulation." 

It will be observed that these Instructions concerning Ca- 
pitulation are for the Crown Prince and Nelson ; not for Euffo, 

1 Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 492. The author quotes from the translation. The 
original is also given, p. 522. There is more that pi'ecedes, and also follow- 
ing ; but nothing which in the author's judgment impairs — but rather 
confirms — the force of the words quoted. 

2 George Rose's Diaries, etc., vol. i. pp. 231-236. Both the Italian origi- 
nal and the translation are there given. The italics are the author's. 

25 



386 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

whose orders at that time were not to approach Naples until 
the squadron appeared, and who had special directions, less 
discretional than those in these Instructions, as to terms to be 
offered to prisoners. 

The extent of the powers intrusted to Nelson — who him- 
self received a copy of this paper for his information — are 
clear from the 4th Article. All military operations, and all 
political, were to be agreed upon by him and the Prince ; but 
in case of a difference arising, it was known to the generals, 
and to Nelson, and to Euffo (who also had, or was to have, 
his copy) — known to each and to all — that the opinion 
of Nelson was to preponderate — overweigh the others. As 
this was to be in political as well as in military matters, it is 
difficult to see what more is wanted to constitute the full 
powers which Nelson claimed to possess. 

Further, it has been questioned whether he held jiower to 
supersede Ruffo ; but from Article 7 it is clear that Euffo was 
already superseded as Vicar-General, «}«o facto, by the mere 
coming of the Crown Prince and Nelson. Eor, after a certain 
further time should have elapsed, — ''when Naples shall be 
entirely subdued," — " the Vicar-General shall take posses- 
sion of the entire government of the kingdom, and to this 
intent will receive from the Prince Eoyal the King's neio 
ratification," etc. The ample vice-regal powers conferred 
upon the Cardinal by the King's instructions to him of 
January 25th were superseded by those to the Crown Prince 
and Nelson, of whose coming and its object, it is stated in 
Article 2, advices were despatched to him ; for his commission 
was to be ratified anew when the object of Nelson's coming 
Avas accomplished by the subjugation of the city or kingdom 
— to whichever of these the name Naples is meant to apply. 
This view of the matter is confirmed by the King's subsequent 
full approval of Nelson's action. Sacchinelli states that Euffo 
received at Avellino, by June 10,^ an autograph letter from the 
King, notifying him of the intended expedition, and forbidding 

1 Either this date is a mistake, or the King wrote to Euffo some days he- 
fore the instructions to the Crown Prince were issued, which is possible. 
Nelson, on the evening of June 6, wrote to St. Vincent, " It is not yet decided, 
but it is probable that in forty-eight hours we may sail for the Bay of Naples, 
in order to replace His Sicilian Majesty on his throne." (Nicolas, vii. clxxxiv.) 



NELSON'S POWERS AT NAPLES 387 

him to advance on Naples before the arrival of the fleets 
This order Ruffo disobeyed ; he claimed, necessarily. 

When Nelson came to Palermo on June 21st, and remained 
two or tliree hours, it was not needful to invest him with new 
or ampler powers. The absence of any new credentials at 
that time is more than overborne by the absence of any revo- 
cation of the former instrument. The preponderance he had 
over all others, even to the Crown Prince, was not lessened by 
the absence of the latter, to whatever due. But, though 
nothing formal and written is on record, Ave have, concerning 
his powers over Ruffo, incidental confirmation of a kind usu- 
ally accepted as authoritative. Sir William Hamilton, in an 
official despatch of July 14 to the British Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs, says: ''Their Sicilian Majesties having received 
alarming accounts from Naples, that the Calabrese Army upon 
their entry into Naples was plundering the houses of that 
city, and setting them on fire under the pretence of their 
belonging to Jacobins, and that Cardinal Ruffo, elated with 
his unexpected successes, was taking upon himself a power far 
beyond the positive instructions of his Sovereign, and actually 
treating with His Sicilian Majesty's subjects in arms, and in 
open rebellion against him, earnestly entreated Lord Nelson 
that he would go immediately with his Majesty's whole 
squadron to Naples, and jy)' event if possible the Cardinal from 
taking any steps, or coming to any terms ivith the Rebels, that 
might be dishonourable to their Sicilian Majesties, and hurtful 
to tbeir future government," etc. As towards Ruffo, such were 
clearly full powers ; and although Hamilton's despatch cer- 
tainly contains errors of fact, in important details, a general 
statement such as the above is entitled to credence, unless his 
general credibility is successfully impeached. The probability 
of the statement being substantially correct is increased by the 
fact that, in writing privately to his nephew, Charles Greville, 
the same day (July 14), he summarizes the conditions by 
saying shortly, " We had full powers." ^ These four words 
have been called an inaccurate summary ; but are they so, of 
the words above italicized ? 

Hamilton's words are here offered simply as corroborative — 
if no greater weight of proof be assigned to them — that the 

^ The Nelson-Hamilton Letters, Alfred Morrison Collection, No. 405. 



388 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

force of the Instructions given to the Neapolitan generals, and 
communicated to Ruffo and Nelson, was not diminished, but 
rather confirmed, in the interview of the 21st. Although 
formal record of the latter has not been preserved, its char- 
acter may be inferred from letters of the King and Queen to 
Ruffo in the same week. The Queen, writing on the 21st 
itself, says : " I realise how much all the horrors, which Your 
Eminence mentions at large in your letter of the 17th to the 
King, must afflict you. It seems to me that we have done all 
we can in the matter of clemency to such rebels, and that to 
treat with them further would be useless, and would lower us. 
Negotiations might be had with St. Elmo, which is in the 
hands of the French; but the other two, if they do not sur- 
render immediately and without conditions, to the summons 
of Admiral Nelson " (whose coming she had already men- 
tioned), "are to be taken by main force and treated as they 
deserve." ^ The King, writing on the 17th, tells the Cardinal 
he is sure it is needless to repeat what has already been said 
with reference to the treatment of the Jacobin rebels, espe- 
cially the chiefs. "Nevertheless, I recommend you strongly 
to do nothing unbecoming to that dignity, which it is so 
necessary to sustain, or to your, and my, honor and reputation. 
As a Christian, I forgive all ; but in the station in which God 
has placed me, I must be the rigorous avenger of offences done 
to Him, and of the injury occasioned to the state and to so 
many poor unfortunates." ^ The views of the Government as 
to the course which Nelson was expected and requested to 
pursue are clear from these extracts and references, though 
his powers were not thereby created. This cumulative evi- 
dence is very strong ; to the present writer it is demonstra- 

1 Arcli. Stor. per le Prov. Nap., 1880, p. 576. Dumas, I Boiboni di 
Napoli, vol. iv. p. 77. 

'-' Dumas, I Borboni di Napoli, vol. v. p. 253. The King, on May 1, 1799 
(Dumas, vol. v. p. 239), had written Euffo a letter, classifying the Rebels who 
were excepted from a policy of amnesty, then decided. Nelson (Nicolas, vol. 
iii. p. 341) alludes to this, as published. Ruffo, in his dispute with Nelson, on 
board the " Foudroyaut," alleged in defence of the Capitulation an order from 
the King, to do the best he could for his Majesty's service. To this Acton 
replied that such a verbal order, if given, was countermanded by the special 
written orders, above mentioned (Egerton MSS. Br. Mus. ^^f§ ). There were 
very many of the excepted in the Castles. 



NELSON'S POWERS AT NAPLES 389 

tive. To its positive weight, also, is opposed only the negative 
argument that nothing more precise — more like a formal 
commission — has been preserved. 

To these various written evidences, which remain on record, 
by persons entirely foreign to Nelson's particular interest in 
the transactions — which have been so colored as to touch his 
reputation and his integrity — is to be added his own state- 
ment, written less than a year later to his friend Davison, for 
the purpose of being shown to members of the British Govern- 
ment, or even to be published in the papers, if advisable : ^ 
"As the whole affairs of the Kingdom of Naples were at the 
time alluded to absolutely placed in my hands, it is / who am 
called upon to explain my conduct, and therefore send you my 
observations on the infamous Armistice entered into by the 
Cardinal," etc. Concerning the substantial exactness of this 
statement, opinion will be formed upon the corroborative evi- 
dence before adduced, and upon Nelson's own claim to be 
believed, as affected by his record for truthfulness, by his age 
and intelligence, and generally by his competency to remem- 
ber and to report correctly a transaction then less than a year 
old. 

It was in virtue of the same unlimited powers as represent- 
ative of the King, that Nelson, three days after the surrender 
of the castles, proceeded to take peremptory action in the case 
of Caracciolo. In the mean time, in pursuance of the agree- 
ments with Ruffe, additional marines were landed from the 
fleet under the command of Troubridge, to besiege St. Elmo, 
an undertaking in which the five hundred Russians and some 
royalists also took part. 

On the 29th of June, Commodore Francesco Caracciolo, 
lately head of the Republican Navy, was brought on board 
the " Foudroyant," having been captured in the country, in 
disguise. This man had accompanied the royal family in 
their flight to Palermo ; but after arrival there had obtained 
leave to return to Naples, in order to avert the confiscation 
of his property by the Republican government. He sub- 
sequently joined the Republicans, or Jacobins, as they were 

1 (P. S.) " Show these papers to Mr. Rose, or some other, and, if thought 
right, you will put them in the papers." Nelson to Davison, May, 1800. 
Nicolas, vol. iv. p. 232. 



390 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

called by Kelson and the Court. His reasons for so doing 
are immaterial ; tliey were doubtless perfectly sound from 
the point of view of apparent self-interest ; the substantial 
fact remains that he commanded the insurgent vessels in 
action with the British and Eoyal Neapolitan navies, firing 
impartially upon both. In one of these engagements the Nea- 
politan frigate " Minerva " was struck several times, losing 
two men killed and four wounded. Caracciolo, therefore, 
had fully committed himself to armed insurrection, in com- 
pany with foreign invaders, against what had hitherto been, 
and still claimed to be, the lawful government of the country. 
He had afterwards, as the Kepublican cause declined, taken 
refuge with the other insurgents in the castles. When he 
left them is uncertain, but on the 23d of June he is known to 
have been outside of Naples, and so remained till captured. 

It is not easy to understand in what respect his case dif- 
fered from that of other rebels who surrendered uncondi- 
tionally, and whom Nelson did not tiy himself, but simply 
^placed in safe keeping until the King's insti'uctions should 
be received, except that, as a naval officer, he was liable to 
trial by court-martial, even though martial law had not been 
proclaimed. It was to such a tribunal that Nelson decided 
instantly to bring him. A court-martial of Neapolitan officers 
was immediately ordered to convene on board the " Fou- 
droyant," the precept for the Court being sent to Count 
Thurn, captain of the " Minerva," who, because senior officer 
in the bay, was indicated by custom as the proper president. 
The charges, as worded by Nelson, were two in number, 
tersely and clearly stated. " Francisco Caracciolo, a commo- 
dore in the service of His Sicilian Majesty, stands accused 
of rebellion against his lawful sovereign, and for firing at his 
colours hoisted on board his Frigate, the Minerva." The 
court assembled at once, sitting from 10 a. m. to noon. The 
charges being found proved, sentence of death was pro- 
nounced ; and Caracciolo, who had been brought on board at 
9 A. M., Avas at 5 p. m., by Nelson's orders, hanged at the fore- 
yard-arm of the " Minerva." He was forty-seven years old 
at the time of his death. 

The proceedings of the court-martial were open, but the 
record, jf any was drawn up, has not been preserved. It is 



F 



THE EXECUTION OF CARACCIOLO 391 

impossible, therefore, now to say whether the evidence sus- 
tained the charges ; but the acts alleged were so simple and 
so notorious, that there can be little doubt Caracciolo had 
fairly incurred his fate. Even in our milder age, no officer 
of an army or navy would expect to escape the like punish- 
ment for the same offence ; if he did, it would be because 
mercy prevailed over justice. As regards the technicalities 
of the procedure, it would seem probable that Nelson's full 
powers, especially when committed to a military man, included 
by fair inference, if not expressly, the right of ordering 
courts-martial ; whereas he had not at hand the machinery of 
judges and civil courts, for proceeding against the civilians 
who had joined in the insurrection. Despite his fearlessness 
of responsibility, he was always careful not to overpass the 
legal limits of his authority, except when able to justify his 
action by what at least appeared to himself adequate reasons. 
The Portuguese squadron, for instance, was absolutely under 
his orders, so far as its movements went ; but, when a case 
of flagrant misconduct occurred, he confined himself to re- 
gretting that he had not power to order a court. Anomalous 
as his position was in the Bay of Naples, before the arrival 
of the King, and regrettably uncertain as is the commission 
under which he acted, there is no ground for doubting that 
he had authority to order a court-martial, and to carry 
its sentence into execution, nor that Caracciolo came within 
the jurisdiction of a court-martial properly constituted. Hav- 
ing regard, therefore, to the unsettled, conditions of things 
prevailing, no fatal irregularity can be shown either in the 
trial or execution of this prisoner. 

But, while all this is true, the instinctive aversion with 
which this act of Nelson's has been regarded generally is 
well founded. It was not decent, for it was not necessary, 
that capture should be followed so rapidly by trial, and con- 
demnation by execution. Neither time nor circumstances 
pressed. The insurrection was over. Except the siege of 
St. Elmo, hostilities near Naples were at an end. That 
Caracciolo's judges were naval officers who had recently been 
in action with him would be, with average military men, 
rather in the prisoner's favor than otherwise ; but it was 
very far from being in his favor that they were men in whom 



392 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the angry passions engendered by civil warfare, and licentious 
spoliation, had not yet had time to cool. Neither the judges 
nor the revising power allowed themselves space for reflec- 
tion. Nelson himself failed to sustain the dispassionate and 
magnanimous attitude that befitted the admiral of a great 
squadron, so placed as to have the happy chance to moderate 
the excesses which commonly follow the triumph of parties 
in intestine strife. But, however he then or afterwards may 
have justified his course to his own conscience, his great 
offence was against his own people. To his secondary and 
factitious position of delegate from the King of Naples, he 
virtually sacrificed the consideration due to his inalienable 
character of representative of the King and State of Great 
Britain. He should have remembered that the act would 
appear to the world, not as that of the Neapolitan plenipoten- 
tiary, but of the British officer, and that his nation, while 
liable like others to bursts of unreasoning savagery, in its 
normal moods delights to see justice clothed in orderly forms, 
unstained by precipitation or suspicion of perversion, advanc- 
ing to its ends with the majesty of law, without unseemly 
haste, providing things honest in the sight of all men. That 
he did not do so, wheu he could have done so, has been intui- 
tively felt ; and to the instinctive resentment thus aroused 
among his countrymen has been due the facility with which 
the worst has been too easily believed. 

Commander Jeaffreson Miles of the British Navy, writing 
in 1843, was one of the first, if not the very first, to clear 
effectually Nelson's reputation from the stigma of treachery, 
and of submission to unworthy influences, at this time. He 
has sought also to vindicate his hasty action in Caracciolo's 
case, by citing the swift execution of two seamen by Lord St. 
Vincent, at a time when mutiny was threatening. It cannot 
be denied that, for deterrent effect, punishment at times must 
be sudden as well as sharp ; but the justification in each case 
rests upon attendant circumstances. In the instances here 
compared, we have in the one a fleet in which many ships 
were seething Avith mutiny, and the preservation of order 
rested solely upon the firmness of one man, — the commander- 
in-chief, — and upon the awe inspired by him. In the other, 
we see rebellion subdued, the chief rebels in confinement, the 



THE EXECUTION OF CARACCIOLO 393 

foreign enemy, except three small isolated garrisons, expelled 
beyond the borders of the kingdom six weeks before, and a 
great British fleet in possession of the anchorage. Punish- 
ment in sxich case, however just, is not deterrent, but aveng- 
ing. True, Nelson was expecting the appearance of Bruix's 
fleet ; but he himself characterized as " infamous " the capit- 
ulation granted by Ruffo and Foote, to which they were 
largely moved by the same expectation, when wielding a 
much smaller force than he did. The possible approach of 
the French fleet did not necessitate the hasty execution of a 
prisoner. 

That ISTelson yielded his convictions of right and wrong, 
and consciously abused his power, at the solicitation of Lady 
Hamilton, as has been so freely alleged, is not probably true, 
— there is no proof of it; on the contrary, as though to guard 
against such suspicion, he was careful to see none but his 
own ofiicers during Caracciolo's confinement. But it is true 
that he was saturated Avith the prevalent Court feeling against 
the insurgents and the French, which found frequent expres- 
sion in his letters. After living in the Hamiltons' house for 
four months, during which, to use his own expression, " I 
have never but three times put my foot to the ground, since 
December, 1798," in daily close contact with the woman who 
had won his passionate love, who was the ardent personal 
friend of the Queen, sharing her antipathies, and expressing 
her hatred of enemies in terms which showed the coarseness 
of her fibre,^ Nelson was steeped in the atmosphere of the 

^ Mr. Prj'se Lockliart Gordon, who was in Palermo in January, 1799, tells 
the following anecdote of Lady Hamilton. He had been dining at the ambas- 
sador's, and after dinner a Turkish officer was introduced. In the course of 
the evening he boasted that he had put to death with his own sword a number 
of French prisoners. " ' Look, there is their blood remaining on it ! ' The 
speech being translated, her Ladyship's eye beamed with delight, and she 
said, ' Oh, let me see the sword that did the glorious deed ! ' It was pre- 
sented to her ; she took it into her fair hands, covered with rings, and, look- 
ing at the encrusted Jacobin blood, kissed it, and handed it to the hero of 
the Nile. Had I not been an eye-witness to this disgraceful act, I would not 
have ventured to relate it." (Gordon's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 210. ) The author, 
also, would not have ventured to adduce it, witliout first satisfying himself, 
by impiry, as to the probable credibility of Mr. Gordon, and. likewise testing 
his narrative. It bears marks of the inaccuracy in details to which memory 
is subject, but the indications of general correctness are satisfactory. 



394 THE LIFE OE NELSON 

Court of Naples, and separated from that of the British fleet, 
none of whose strongest captains were long with him during 
that period. The attitude more natural to men of his blood 
is shown in a letter signed by the officers of the " Leviathan," 
Duckworth's flagship. Coming from Minorca, they were ou^ 
of touch with Neapolitan fury, and they addressed Lady 
Hamilton, interceding for a family engaged in the rebellion ; 
a fact which shows the prevailing impression — whether well 
founded or not — of the influence in her power to exert. 
" We all feel ourselves deeply impressed with the horrid 
crime of disaffection to one's lawful sovereign, . . . but when 
we consider the frailty of human nature," &c. " Advise those 
Neapolitans not to be too sanguinary," wrote Keith to Nelson, 
apparently immediately after receiving the news of Caracci- 
olo's hanging. 

The abrupt execution of Caracciolo was an explosion of 
fierce animosity long cherished, pardonable perhaps in a Nea- 
politan royalist, but not in a foreign officer only indirectly 
interested in the issues at stake ; and hence it is that the fate 
of that one sufferer has roused more attention and more sym- 
pathy than that of the numerous other victims, put to death 
by the King's command after ordinary processes of law. It 
stands conspicuous as the act of an English officer imbued 
with the spirit of a Neapolitan Bourbon official. "Could it 
ever happen," he wrote to Acton, some months after this, 
"that any English minister wanted to make me an instrument 
of hurting the feelings of His Sicilian Majesty, I would give 
up my commission sooner than do it. . . .1 am placed in such 
a situation — a subject of one King by birth, and, as far as 
is consistent with my allegiance to that King, a voluntary 
subject of His Sicilian Majesty — that if any man attempted 
to separate my two Kings, by all that is sacred, I should 
consider even putting that man to death as a meritorious 
act." ^ On the other hand, it must be considered that Nelson, 
though humane, tended even in his calmest moments to se- 
verity towards military offenders. Writing with reference 
to a captain convicted of misbehavior before the enemy, he 
said, "If a man does not do his utmost in time of action, 
I think but one punishment ought to be inflicted ; " and it 
1 Nelson to Acton, November IS, 1799. (Nicolas.) 



ACTIVITY OF LADY HAMILTON 395 

may be inferred that he would have approved Byng's exe- 
cution, where cowardice was not proved, but grave military 
dereliction was. 

On the 10th of July the King of the Two Sicilies arrived 
from Palermo in the Bay of Naples, and went on board the 
" Foudroyant," which, for the whole time he remained, — 
about four weeks, — became practically his seat of govern- 
ment. There the royal standard was hoisted, there the King 
held his levees, and there business of State was transacted. 
In and through all moved the figures of Sir William and Lady 
Hamilton, the latter considering herself, and not without 
cause, the representative of the Queen. The latter had re- 
mained in Palermo, being out of favor with the Neapolitans, 
and with her husband, who attributed to her precipitancy the 
disasters of the previous December. The two women corre- 
sponded daily ; and, if the minister's wife deceived herself 
as to the amount and importance of what she effected, there 
is no doubt that she was very busy, that she was commonly 
believed to exert much influence, and that great admiration 
for one another was expressed by herself, Hamilton, and Nel- 
son, the " Tria juneta in uno'^ as the latter was pleased to 
style them. '' I never saw such zeal and activity in any one 
as in this wonderful man [Nelson]," Avrote she to Greville. 
"My dearest Sir William, thank God! is well, and of the 
greatest use now to the King." "Emma has been of infinite 
use in our late very critical business," said Hamilton to the 
same correspondent. " Ld. Nelson and I cou.'d not have done 
without her. It will be a heart-breaking to the Queen of 
N. when we go " — back to England, as was then expected. 
" Sir William and Lady Hamilton are, to my great comfort, 
with me," wrote Nelson to Spencer; "for without them it 
would have been impossible I could have rendered half the 
service to his Majesty which I have now done : their heads 
and their hearts are equally great and good." 

The execution of Caracciolo was shortly followed by an- 
other very singular incident, which showed how biassed Nel- 
son had become towards the interests of the Neapolitan Court, 
and how exclusively he identified them — confused them, 
would scarcely be too strong a Avord — with the essential 
interests of the Allied cause and the duties of the British 



396 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Navy, On the 13th of July the castle of St. Elmo was sur- 
rendered by the French, the whole city of Naples thus re- 
turning under the royal authorit^^ On the same day, or the 
next, Troubridge, with a thousand of the best men that could 
be sent from the squadron, marched against Capua, accom- 
panied by four thousand troops. A letter had already been 
received from the commander-in-chief, Keith, to Nelson, inti- 
mating that it might be necessary to draw down his vessels 
from Naples to the defence of Minorca. " Should such an 
order come at this moment," wrote Nelson to the First Lord, 
forecasting his probable disobedience, " it would be a cause 
for some consideration whether Minorca is to be risked, or the 
two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily ? I rather think my de- 
•cision would be to risk the former; " and he started Troubridge 
ofE with a detachment that seriously crippled the squadron. 
Capua is fifteen to twenty miles inland from Naples. 

On the 13th — it is to be presumed after closing his letter 
to Spencer just quoted — an order reached him from Keith, 
in these words : ''Events Avhich have recently occurred render 
it necessary that as great a force as can be collected should be 
assembled near the island of Minorca; therefore, if your Lord- 
ship has no detachment of the French squadron in the neigh- 
bourhood of Sicily, nor information of their having sent anj'- 
force towards Egypt or Syria, you are hereby required and 
directed to send such ships as you can possibly spare off the 
island of Minorca to wait my orders." The wording was so 
elastic, as regards the numbers to be sent, as to leave much to 
Nelson's judgment, and he replied guardedly the same day : 
" As soon as the safety of His Sicilian Majesty's Kingdoms 
is secured, I shall not lose one moment in making the de- 
tachment you are pleased to order. At present, under God's 
Providence, the safety of His Sicilian Majesty, and his speedy 
restoration to his kingdom, depends on this fleet, and the con- 
fidence inspired even by the appearance of our ships before 
the city is beyond all belief; and I have no scruple in declar- 
ing my opinion that should any event draw us from the king- 
dom, that if the French remain in any part of it, disturbances 
will again arise, for all order having been completely over- 
turned, it must take a thorough cleansing, and some little 
time, to restore tranquillity." 



REFUSES TO OBEY KEITH'S ORDER 397 

When Keith wrote this first order, June 27, he was at sea 
somewhere between IMinorca and Toulon, trying to find Bruix's 
fleet, of which he had lost touch three weeks before, at the 
time he sent to Nelson the two seventy-fours, whose arrival 
caused the latter's second cruise of Maritimo. He had lost 
touch through a false step, the discussion of which has no 
place in a life of Nelson, beyond the remark that it was 
Keith's own error, not that of Lord St. Vincent, as Nelson 
afterwards mistakenly alleged ; querulously justifying his 
own disobedience on the ground that Keith, by obeying 
against his judgment, had lost the French fleet. What is to 
be specially noted in the order is that Keith gave no account 
of his reasons, nor of the events which dictated them, nor of 
his own intended action. No rooni is afforded by his words 
for any discretion, except as to the number of ships to be sent 
by Nelson, and, though the language of the latter was evasive, 
the failure to move even a single vessel was an act of unjusti- 
fiable disobedience. To Keith he wrote privately, and in a 
conciliatory spirit, but nothing that made his act less flagrant. 
" To all your wishes, depend on it, I shall pay the very 
strictest attention." 

Conscious of the dangerous step he was taking. Nelson wrote 
on the same day, by private letter,^ to the First Lord of the 
Admiralty. " You will easily conceive my feelings," he said, 
" but my mind, your Lordship will know, was perfectly pre- 
pared for this order ; and more than ever is my mind made 

1 Much confusion has been introduced into the times, M'hen Keith's several 
orders were received b}' Nelson, by the fact that the original of this private 
letter to Earl Spencer is dated the 19th (Nicolas, vol. vii. p. clxxxv) ; while 
the secretary, copying it into the letter-book, wrote July 13th. (Nicolas, vol. 
iii. p. 408.) Nicolas considered the former correct, probably because it came 
last into his hands. The author considers the 13th correct, because the 
official letter to Keith bears that date, and reads, " I have to acknowledge the 
receipt of your Lordshij/s letter of June '27." (Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 408.) 

The date of Troubridge's marching against Capua is similarly brought into 
doubt by these letters. The author believes it to have been July 13 or 14, 
from another official letter to Keith of the 13th. (Nicolas, vol. iii. p. 404.) 
" Captains Troubridge and Hallowell . . . march against Capua to-morrow 
morning." The odd Sea-Time of that day, by which July 13 began at noon, 
July 12, of Civil Time, also causes confusion ; writers using them indiscrinii- 
natingly. The capitulation of St. Elmo was certainly signed on July 12. 
(Clarke and M 'Arthur, vol. ii. p. 294.) 



398 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

up, that, at this moment, I will not part with a single ship, 
as I cannot do that without drawing a hundred and twenty 
men from each ship now at the siege of Capua, where an army 
is gone this day. I am fully aware of the act I have com- 
mitted ; but, sensible of my loyal intentions, I am prepared 
for any fate which may await my disobedience. Do not think 
that my opinion is formed from the arrangements of any one," 
an expression which shows that he was aware how talk was 
running. "iVo; be it good, or be it bad, it is all my own. It 
is natural I should wish the decision of the Admiralty and my 
Commander-in-chief as speedily as possible. To obtain the 
former, I beg your Lordship's interest with the Board. You 
know me enough, my dear Lord, to be convinced I want no 
screen to my conduct." 

On the 9th of July, Keith wrote again, from Port INIahon, a 
letter which Nelson received on the 19th.. He said that he 
was satisfied that the enemy's intentions were directed neither 
against the Two Sicilies, nor to the reinforcement of their 
army in Egypt; that, on the contrary, there was reason to 
believe they were bound out of the Straits. " I judge it 
necessary that all, or tlie greatest part of the force under your 
Lordship's orders, should quit the Island of Sicily, and repair 
to Minorca, for the purpose of protecting that Island during 
the necessary absence of His Majesty's squadron under my 
command, or for the purpose of co-operating with me against 
the combined force of the enemy, wherever it may be neces- 
sary." The commander-in-chief, in short, wished to mass his 
forces, for the necessities of the general campaign, as he con- 
sidered them. Nelson now flatly refused obedience, on the 
ground of the local requirements in his part of the field. 
" Your Lordship, at the time of sending me the order, was 
not informed of the change of affairs in the Kingdom of 
Naples, and that all our marines and a body of seamen are 
landed, in order to drive the French scoundrels out of the 
Kingdom, which, with God's blessing will very soon be 
effected, when a part of this squadron shall be immediately 
sent to Minorca ; but unless the French are at least drove 
from Capua, I think it right not to obey your Lordship's order 
for sending down any part of the squadron under my orders. 
I am perfectly aware of the consequences of disobeying the 



KEFUSES TO OBEY KEITH'S ORDER 399 

orders of my commander-in-chief." It cannot be said that the 
offensiveness of the ,act of disobedience is tempered by any 
very conciliatory tone in the words used. The reason for 
disobedience makes matters rather worse. " As I believe the 
safety of the Kingdom of Naples depends at the present 
moment on my detaining the squadron, I have no scruple in 
deciding that it is better to save the Kingdom of Naples and 
risk Minorca, than to risk the Kingdom of Naples to save 
Minorca." When he thus wrote, Nelson knew that Bruix had 
joined the Spanish fleet in Cartagena, making a combined 
force of forty ships, to which Keith, after stripping Minorca, 
could oppose thirty-one. 

None of Nelson's letters reached Keith until long after he 
had left the Mediterranean, which probably prevented the 
matter being brought to a direct issue between the two, such 
as would have compelled the Admiralty to take some deci- 
sive action. Oil the 10th of July the commander-in-chief 
sailed from Port Mahon for Cartagena, following on the tracks 
of the allied fleets, which he pursued into the Atlantic and 
to Brest, where they succeeded in entering on the 13th of 
August, just twenty-four hours before the British came up. 
The narrow margin of this escape inevitably suggests the 
thought, of how much consequence might have been the co- 
operation of the dozen ships Nelson could have brought. It 
is true, certainly, as matters turned out, that even had he 
obeyed, they could not have accompanied Keith, nor in the 
event did any harm come to Minorca ; but there was no 
knowledge in Nelson's possession that made an encounter 
between the two great fleets impossible, nor was it till three 
days after his former refusal to obey, that he knew certainly 
that Keith had given up all expectation of a junction with 
himself. Then, on the 22d of July, he received two letters 
dated the 14th, and couched in tones so peremptory as to sug- 
gest a suspicion that no milder words would enforce obedi- 
ence — that his commander-in-chief feared that nothing short 
of cast-iron orders would drag him away from the Neapolitan 
Court, " Your Lordship is hereby required and directed to 
repair to Minorca, with the whole, or the greater part, of the 
force under your Lordship's command, for the protection of 
that island, as I shall, in all probability, have left the Mediter- 



400 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ranean before your Lordship will receive this, Keith." The 
second letter of the same date ended witli the words : " I 
therefore trust the defence of Minorca to your Lordship, and 
repeat my directions that the ships be sent for its protection." 
On the receipt of these, though Capua had not yet surren- 
dered, Nelson at once sent Duckworth with four ships-of-the- 
line to Minorca, detaining only their marines for the land 
operations. 

It seems scarcely necessary to say that, while an officer in 
subordinate command should have the moral courage to tran- 
scend or override his orders in particular instances — each of 
which rests upon its own merits, and not upon any general 
rule that can be formulated — it would be impossible for mili- 
tary operations to be carried on at all, if the commander-in- 
chief were liable to be deliberately defied and thwarted in his 
combinations, as Keith was in this case. It does not appear 
that Nelson kneiv the circumstances which Keith was con- 
sidering ; he only kneiv what the conditions were about Naples, 
and he thought that the settlement of the kingdom might be 
prevented by the departure of several of his ships. In this 
opinion, in the author's judgment, his views were exaggerated, 
and colored by the absorbing interest he had come to take in 
the royal family and their fortunes, linked as these were with, 
the affections of a particular woman ; but, even granting that 
his apprehensions were well founded, he was taking upon him- 
self to determine, not merely what was best for the Kingdom of 
the Two Sicilies, but what was best for the whole Mediterranean 
command. It was not within his province to decide whether 
Minorca or Naples was the more important. That was the 
function of the commander-in-chief. Had the latter, while 
leaving Nelson's force unchanged, directed him to follow a 
particular line of operations in the district committed to him, 
it is conceivable that circumstances, unknown to his superior, 
might have justified him in choosing another; but there was 
nothing in the conditions that authorized his assumption that 
he could decide for the whole command. And this is not the 
less true, because Nelson was in the general a man of far 
sounder judgment and keener insight than Keith, or because 
his intuitions in the particular instaiice were more accurate, 
as they possibly were. He defended his course on the ground, 



REFUSES TO OBEY KEITH'S ORDER 401 

SO frequently and so erroneously taken, that his intentions 
were right. " I am so confident," he wrote to the Admiralty, 
" of the uprightness of my intentions for his Majesty's service, 
and for that of his Sicilian Majesty, which I consider as the 
same, that, with all respect, I submit myself to the judgment 
of my superiors." Four years later, in 1803, he used the fol- 
lowing singular expressions concerning his conduct at this 
period : '' I paid more attention to another sovereign than my 
own ; therefore the King of Naples' gift of Bronte to me, if it 
is not now settled to my advantage, and to be permanent, has 
cost me a fortune, and a great deal of favour which I might 
have enjoyed, and jealousy which I should have avoided. I 
repine not on those accounts. I did my duty, to the Sicilify- 
ing my own conscience, and I am easy." ^ " As I have often 
before risked my life for the good cause," he told his old friend 
the Duke of Clarence, " so I with cheerfulness did my com- 
mission : for although a military tribunal may think me 
criminal, the world will approve my conduct." With such 
convictions, he might, if condemned, as he almost inevitably 
must have been, have met his fate with the cheerfulness of a 
clear conscience; but no military tribunal can possibly accept 
a man's conscience as the test of obedience. 

The Admiralty, who had sent Keith out knowing that St. 
Vincent, after three arduous years, meant soon to retire, could 
not of course acquiesce in Nelson's thus overriding the man 
they had chosen to be his commander-in-chief. " Their Lord- 
ships do not, from any information now before them, see suffi- 
cient reason to justify your having disobeyed the orders you 
had received from your Commanding Officer, or having left 
Minorca exposed to the risk of being attacked, without having 
any naval force to protect it." To this measured rebuke was 
added some common-sense counsel upon the pernicious practice 
of jeopardizing the 2^&>'sonnel of a fleet, the peculiar trained 
force so vitally necessary, and so hard to replace, in petty 
operations on shore. "Although in operations on the sea- 
-coast, it may frequently be highly expedient to land a part of 
the seamen of the squadron, to co-operate with and to assist 
the army, when the situation will admit of their being imme- 
diately re-embarked, if the squadron should be called away to 

1 Nicolas, vol. V. p. 160. 
26 



402 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

act elsewhere [as Keith had called it], or if information of 
the approach of an enemy's fleet should be received, — yet 
their Lordships by no means approve of the seamen being 
landed to form a part of an army to be employed in operations 
at a distance from the coast, where, if they should have the 
misfortune to be defeated, they might be prevented from 
returning to the ships, and the squadron be thereby rendered 
so defective, as to be no longer capable of performing the 
services required of it; and I have their Lordships' commands 
to signify their directions to your Lordship not to employ the 
seamen in like manner in future." 

It was evident that the Admiralty did not fully share Nel- 
son's attachment to the royal house of Naples, nor consider 
the service of the King of the Two Sicilies the same as 
that of the King of Great Britain. Earl Spencer's private 
letter, while careful of Nelson's feelings, left no room to 
doubt that he was entirely at one with his colleagues in their 
oflB-cial opinion. Nelson Avinced and chafed under the double 
rebuke, but he was not in a condition to see clearly any 
beams in his own eye. " I observe with great pain that their 
Lordships see no cause which could justify my disobeying 
the orders of my commanding officer, Lord Keith ; " but the 
motives he again alleges are but the repetition of those 
already quoted. He fails wholly to realize that convictions 
which would justify a man in going to a martyr's fate may be 
wholly inadequate to sap the fundamental military obligation 
of obedience. "My conduct is measured by the Admiralty, 
by the narrow rule of law, when I think it should have been 
done by that of common sense. I restored a faithful ally by 
breach of orders ; Lord Keith lost a fleet by obedience against 
his own sense. Yet as one is censured the other must be 
approved. Such things are." As a matter of fact, as before 
said, it was by departing from St. Vincent's orders that Keith 
lost the French fleet. Nor did Nelson's mind work clearly on 
the subject. Thwarted and fretted as he continually was by 
the too common, almost universal, weakness, which deters men 
from a bold initiative, from assuming responsibility, from era- 
bracing opportunity, he could not draw the line between that 
and an independence of action which would convert unity of 
command into anarchy. ''Much as I approve of strict obedi- 



DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS 403 



eiice to orders, yet to say that an officer is never, for any 
object, to alter his orders, is what I cannot comprehend." 
But what rational man ever said such a thing? ''I find few 
think as I do, — but to obey orders is all perfection ! What 
would my superiors direct, did they know what is passing 
under my nose ? To serve my King and to destroy the French I 
consider as the great order of all, from which little ones spring, 
and if one of these little ones militate against it, I go back 
to obey the great order." There is so much that is sound in 
these words, and yet so much confusion might arise in apply- 
ing them, that scarcely any stronger evidence could be given 
that each case must rest on its own merits; and that no gen- 
eral rule can supplant the one general principle of obedience, 
by which alone unity and concentration of effort, the great 
goal of all military movement, can be obtained. 

During this period of agitation and excitement, Nelson's 
health did not show the favorable symptoms that usually 
attended a call to exertion. Much may be attributed to a 
Mediterranean summer, especially after the many seasons he 
had passed in that sea ; but it can readily be believed that 
such exceptional responsibilities as he had just assumed could 
not but tell, even upon his resolute and fearless temper. "I 
am really sorry," wrote Troubridge to him, from the siege 
of St. Elmo, " to see your Lordship so low-spirited, all will 
go well ; " and a few days later, " Your Lordship must en- 
deavour to fret as little as possible — we shall succeed. His 
Majesty's arrival will relieve your Lordship ; and if he 
punishes the guilty, the people will be happy." The day 
after he had refused to obey Keith's order, he wrote to him, 
"I am truly so very unwell that I have not the power of 
writing so much as I could wish; " and the next day, to the 
Admiralty, he makes the same excuse, adding, "I am writing 
in a fever, and barely possible to keep out of bed." " My 
dear friend," he tells Locker, " I am so ill that I can scarcely 
sit up; yet I will not let the courier go off without assur- 
ing you that all your kindnesses to me are fresh in my 
memory. . . . May God Almighty grant you, my revered 
friend, that health and happiness which has never yet been 
attained by your affectionate, grateful friend, Nelson." It 
cannot but be surmised that he did not feel that profound 



404 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

conviction of right, which had sustained him on previous 
occasions. The disquiet indicated resembles rather that 
attending the uncertainties of the Nile campaign. As Colonel 
Stewart noticed, two years later, " With him mind and health 
invariably S3^mpathized." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Nelson temporarily Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. — 
Relieved by Lord Keith. — Applies to return to England on 
Account of III Health. 

August, 1799-June, 1800. Age, 41. 

UPOIST Keith's departure, the command iu the Mediter- 
ranean devolved upon Nelson, who for some time re- 
mained in doubt of the fact, but with his usual promptitude 
acted as if all depended upon himself . " I am venturing 
certainly out of my line of duty, but as the commander-in- 
chief may not even be on the station, I must do the best 
which my judgment points out during his temporary ab- 
sence." Six sail-of-the-line, under Admiral Duckworth, were 
sufficient for service at Gibraltar and Cadiz, if the latter port 
was deserted. Four of the line were about Minorca, con- 
stantly, though inefficiently, threatened from the adjacent 
coasts of Spain. Three were blockading Malta, conjointly 
with the Portuguese vessels. Sidney Smith with his division 
remained in the Levant. Troubridge was operating with 
a few ships on the coast of Italy, against Civita Vecchia, 
still in the hands of the French. A small squadron was 
maintained on the Riviera of Genoa, disturbing the com- 
munications of the French, and keeping touch with the 
advance of the Austro-Russians ; but it was expected that 
the Russian fleet, as was natural and proper, would soon 
assume the duty of co-operating with their general, Suwarrow. 
The smaller British cruisers were distributed among these 
various duties. The flagship " Foudroyant " was at Palermo, 
whither the King returned from Kaples on the 8th of August, 
and there the headquarters of the squadron remained during 
Nelson's command. Soon after this arrival in Palermo the 
King conferred upon him the title of Duke of Bronte, with 
an estate of the same name in Sicily, valued at £3,000 per 



406 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

annum. After this the admiral for a time signed his papers 
as Bronte Nelson/ changed subsequently to Broute Nelson 
of the Nile, and finally settled down to Nelson and Bronte, 
which was his form of signature for the last four years of 
his life. He placed upon his new estate an annual charge of 
£500 in favor of his father for the term of the latter's life. 
"Receive this small tribute, my honoured father," he wrote, 
"as a mark of gratitude to the best of parents from his most 
dutiful son." 

On the 20th of September he received letters from the 
Admiralty, investing him with the chief command, " till the 
return of Lord Keith or some other your superior officer." 
He was not, however, allowed the appointments of a com- 
mander-in-chief, and often complained of the inadequacy 
of his stafE to the extent of his duties. Nelson naturally 
hoped that his long and eminent services in that particular 
field, and the conspicuous ability he had shown on so many 
occasions, would lead to the station remaining permanently 
in his hands, and that Lord Keith, who was now in England, 
would succeed in due course to the Channel Fleet, whose 
commander, Lord Bridport, soon after retired. The Mediter- 
ranean was naturally attributed to a vice-admiral, and one of 
some seniority ; but Nelson was now a rear-admiral of the 
Red, the highest color, not far, therefore, from promotion, 
and it would not be an unreasonable conclusion that the same 
ministry which had been fortunate enough to choose him for 
the campaign of the Nile, might now prefer to entrust to 
such able and enterprising hands the great interests of the 
Mediterranean at large. 

It was not, however, to be so. Whether moved only by 
routine considerations of rank, as afterwards at Copenhagen, 
or whether his relations with the Sicilian Court, his conduct 
of affairs at Naples, and his collisions with Keith, had excited 
doubt of the normal balance of his mind, the Admiralty de- 
cided to send Keith back, and Nelson, greatly to his mortifica- 
tion, was kept in charge only till the end of the year. As St. 
Vincent had always left him practically independent, he had 
known no superior since he entered the Straits, except during 

1 The title of Bronte was assumed in Sicily only, until he received the 
consent of George IIL to accept it. 



TEMPORARILY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 407 

Keith's brief period of succession, wlieu leagues of sheltering 
distance left him free, as has been seen, to defy orders when 
not in accordance with his views ; and he found it impossible 
now to bow his will to the second place on the very field of 
his glory. To this feeling, natural in any man, and doubly so 
to one of Nelson's quick susceptibilities, at once stimulated 
and soothed by the lavish adulation of the past year, was 
added personal dislike to his new superior, aggravated, if not 
originated, by the clash of judgment over the relative impor- 
tance of Naples and Minorca. " I have serious thoughts of 
giving up active service," he wrote to Minto ; "Greenwich 
Hospital seems a fit reti'eat for me after being evidently 
thought unfit to command in the Mediterranean." Complaints 
of Keith's lack of consideration then abound, nor does he 
seem to be conscious that there was anything in his mode of 
life, in current rumor, or in his past relations with his new 
commander-in-chief, which might make the latter unwilling to 
give him the loose rein St. Vincent had done. 

From the time that Keith left the Mediterranean in July, 
1799, to Nelson's own departure a year later, there was little 
to be done in the naval way except to maintain and press 
existing advantages, and wait until the fruit was ready to 
drop. The absolute supremacy of the British squadrons, 
challenged for a moment by the incursion of Admiral Bruix, 
had reverted, in even greater degree than before, by the 
absence of the Spanish ships which had accompanied him to 
Brest. Impeded by their own numbers, and paralyzed by the 
insufficiency of the resources of the port, they remained there 
a huge, inert mass, whose impotence was only partially under- 
stood by the British ; a fact which conduced to prolong 
Keith's presence in the Channel. The year under considera- 
tion was therefore devoid of stirring events at sea. 

In the Mediterranean, it is true. Nelson's unwearying men- 
tal energy, and keen sense of the necessity of seizing oppor- 
tunity, did not allow things to lapse into indolence. Whether 
or not he was well advised to settle himself at Palermo, aware 
as he nuist have been of the actual temptation, and of the 
serious injury that scandal was doing to his reputation, both 
professional and personal, may admit of doubt. With numer- 
ous detached and minor services carrying on at the same 



408 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

moment, there was much to be said for the commauder-in- 
chief remaining in a fixed position, near the centre of affairs ; 
and in his apprehension everything then revolved about the 
Kingdom of Naples. There can be no question, however, 
that all his faculties were constantly on the alert; and that 
his administration of the station until Keith's return was 
characterized by the same zeal, sagacity, and politic tact that 
he had shown in earlier days. It is admirable to note the 
patience, courtesy, and adroit compliment, he brings into 
play, to kindle, in those over whom he has no direct control, 
the ardor for the general good, and the fearlessness of respon- 
sibility, which actuate himself; and at the same time to 
observe how severe the strain was upon his nervous and irri- 
table temper, as betrayed in comments upon these very persons, 
made in private letters which he never expected would see the 
light. 

The points of principal importance were the consolidation 
of the royal power in the continental territory of the Two 
Sicilies, the reduction of Malta, and the retention of the 
French army in Egypt in entire isolation from France. For 
the first, Nelson entirely failed in his efforts to induce the 
King to trust himself again in Naples, as the Hamiltons and 
he had expected, when they came back to Palermo. " My 
situation here is indeed an uncomfortable one," he said to 
Earl Spencer ; " for plain common sense points out that the 
King should return to Naples, but nothing can move him." 
"Our joint exertions have been used to get the King to go to 
Naples," he wrote to Troubridge, "but of no avail; the Aus- 
trians will be there before him." Although the French had 
been expelled from all the Neapolitan dominions, the presence 
of fifteen hundred in Eome and Civita Vecchia served then as 
an excuse. Nelson implored the commander of the British 
troops at Minorca to spare twelve hundred of his men, to aid 
Troubridge on the Eoman coast. "Sir Charles Stuart," he 
tells him flatteringly, " by his timely exertion saved this 
Kingdom [Sicily] from anarchy and confusion, and perhaps 
from rebellion. So it is now, my dear Sir, I trust, in your 
power (and I have assured the good King and Queen of your 
readiness to serve them and the good cause as much as Sir 
Charles) to send for the taking possession of Civita Vecchia 



AFFAIRS OF NAPLES 409 

and Eome ; this done, and with my life, I will answer for the 
success of the expedition. All would be quiet and ha^jpy ; and 
their Sicilian Majesties might return to their throne without 
any alarm from mobs. ... I am sure I need not venture to 
say more on the subject. Your Excellency's judgment and 
heart will point out the necessity of the measure if it can bo 
accomplished." " Our King would be much gratified that 
Britain not Austria should reinstate the Pope." 

Sir James Erskine, thus importuned, did not see his way to 
sending the troops. Naturally, as a soldier, he did not rely 
as much upon the navy preventing a landing in his island, as 
upon his own powers of resistance after it was effected, and 
was therefore unwilling to spare from the latter. The point 
of view of a seaman was, and is, different. He complained, 
too, that Duckworth had taken a great many ships to Gibral- 
tar. I^elson admits the mistake, and expresses his regret, but 
no word of dissatisfaction with Erskine transpires through his 
evident disappointment. He only says, " Pardon what I am 
going to repeat, that either in Malta or on the Continent, a 
field of glory is open." " Minorca," he wrote to Spencer, " I 
have never yet considered in the smallest danger, but it has 
been a misfortune that others have thought differently from 
me on that point." Towards the end of September, Trou- 
bridge, without the aid of British troops, but supported by 
the arrival of a division sent by Suwarrow, reported the 
evacuation of Rome and Civita Vecchia. ''How happy you 
have made us!" wrote Nelson to him. ''My pen will not 
say what 1 feel." The King, however, Avould not return to 
Naples, now that this obstacle was withdrawn. " The Queen 
has a noble, generous disposition," said Nelson two months 
later. "Unfortunately the King and her Majesty do not at 
this moment draw exactly the same wa}' ; therefore, his 
Majesty will not go at this moment to Naples, where his 
presence is much wanted." "We do but waste our breath," 
he avowed afterwards. 

In the beginning of October, a visit which he had intended 
making to Minorca was hastened by a report that thirteen 
hostile ships-of-the-line had been seen off Cape Einisterre, and 
it was thought they might be destined for the Mediterranean. 
Nelson hoped to assemble ten to meet them ; but the news 



410 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

proved to be false. He left Palermo for this trip on the 5th 
of October, and returned again on the 22d, having remained 
five days in Port Mahon. The arrangements for the naval 
force, depending entirely upon himself, were soon settled ; 
but he Avas disappointed in obtaining, as he had hoped to do 
from a personal interviev/ with Erskine, a detachment of two 
thousand troops for Malta. About that island he was, to use 
his own words, almost in despair. For over a year La Valetta 
had been blockaded by land and sea. For the latter he could 
with difficulty find ships; for the former he could obtain no 
men to aid the islanders, who, half starving, dependent for 
food chiefly upon Sicily, were sustained in their resistance 
mainly by hatred of the invaders, and by the tactful appeals 
and encouragement of Captain Ball, who lived ashore among 
them. The Barbary pirates, by virtue of their war with 
Naples, captured many of the vessels laden with supplies, 
despite Nelson's passports; while the Sicilian Court, though 
well disposed, lacked the energy and the propelling force 
necessary to compel the collection and despatch of the needed 
grain. On one occasion Troubridge or Ball, desperate at the 
sight of the famine around them, sent a ship of war into 
Girgenti, a Sicilian port, seized, and brought away two corn- 
laden vessels. "The measure was strong," said Nelson, but 
he refrained from censuring; and, while apologizing to tlie 
Government, added he hoped it '' would not again force officers 
to so unpleasant an alternative." He feared that in their 
misery the Maltese would abandon the struggle, particularly 
if they got wind of the purpose of Great Britain to restore 
the hated Order of Knights, in deference to the wishes of the 
Czar. ''The moment the French flag is struck," he had been 
obliged to write to Ball, " the colours of the Order must be 
hoisted and no other; when it was settled otherwise, the 
orders from England were not so strong." 

About this time came information that several ships were 
fitting out at Toulon, with supplies for the besieged. This 
increased Nelson's anxieties, and at the same time emphasized 
the necessity which he had always urged of using speedier 
and surer means to reduce the place, while the undisputed 
mastery of the sea gave the opportunity. " What might not 
Briiix have done, had he done his duty?" was his own cora- 






AFFAIRS OF MALTA 411 

ment upon that recent incursion ; and who could tell how 
soon as great a force might appear again under an abler man ? 
He turned in every direction, and was instant in his appeals 
for aid. He wrote to Acton that he had positive information 
that seven ships were loaded in Toulon. " I therefore beg 
leave to propose to your Excellency, whether under our pres- 
ent circumstances, it would not be riglit for his Sicilian Maj- 
esty to desire that the English garrison at Messina should 
instantly go to Malta, for I am clear, that if Malta is relieved, 
that our forces got together could not take it, and the com- 
mencement of a new blockade would be useless. All the 
Barbary cruisers would there have their rendezvous, and not 
a vessel of his Sicilian Majesty's could put to sea." He ex- 
horts the minister also to apply to the Russians for immediate 
help at Malta. 

At the same time, to augment his embarrassments, orders 
came from Lisbon recalling the Portuguese squadron, which 
formed the larger part of the sea blockade. Nelson forgot 
how often he had abused them as useless, and grappled with 
that part of the difficulty with characteristic boldness. He 
peremptorily forbade the admiral to obey his orders. " As 
the reduction of the Island of Malta is of the greatest con- 
sequence to the interests of the allied Powers at war with 
Prance, and the withdrawing of the squadron under your 
command, at this time, from the blockade of that island, will 
be of the most ruinous consequences to their interests . . . 
you are hereby required and directed, in consideration of the 
above circumstances, and notwithstanding the orders you may 
have received from your Court to return to Lisbon, not on 
any consideration whatsoever to withdraw one man from that 
island, which may have been landed from the squadron under 
your Excellency's command, or detach one ship down the 
Mediterranean, until further orders from me for that pur- 
pose." Your orders, he tells JSTiza in a private letter, were 
founded upon the belief that your presence was no longer 
necessary ; " but the contrary is the fact — for your services 
were never more wanted than at this moment, when every 
exertion is wanting to get more troops of English and Russians 
to Malta." He is evidently thinking of his difference with 
Keith ; but now he is within the limits of his commission as 



412 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Commander-in-chief. Doubting, however, whether his official 
authority will prevail with Niza to disobey his recall, he plies 
him skilfully with appeals to those sentiments of honor which 
had received such illustration in his own noble career. *'If 
you quit your most important station till I can get " reliefs 
for you, " depend upon it, your illustrious Prince will dis- 
approve of (in this instance) your punctilious execution of 
orders." " We shall soon get more troops from Messina and 
Minorca ; and I am not a little anxious for the honour of 
Portugal and your Excellency, that you should be present at 
the surrender, I hold myself responsible." " You was the 
first at the blockade. Your Excellency's conduct has gained 
you the love and esteem of Governor Ball, all the British 
officers and men, and the whole Maltese people ; and give me 
leave to add the name of Nelson, as one of your warmest 
admirers, as an officer and a friend." 

As he dealt with the Portuguese admiral, so, in due meas- 
ure, he conducted his intercourse with all others who came 
within the scope of his widely ranging activities. Already 
more Neapolitan than the King, to the Russian he became as 
a Russian, to the Turk as a Turk, all things to all men, if he 
could by any means promote the interest of the Allied cause 
and save Malta. Amid the diverse and conflicting motives 
of a coalition, Nelson played a steady hand, his attention uni- 
fied, and his sight cleared, by an unwavering regard to the 
single object which he compressed into the words, "Down, 
down, with the French ! " In that sense, he asserts truthfully 
enough to each and all of his correspondents that the ad- 
vantage of their country and their monarch is as dear to him 
as that of Great Britain. He touches with artful skill upon 
the evident interests of each nation, appeals to the officer's 
sense of the cherished desires of his sovereign, and, while 
frankly setting forth the truths necessary to be spoken, as to 
the comparative claims upon himself of the various portions 
of the field, he insinuates, rather than suggests, Avhat the 
person immediately addressed ought to be doing in further- 
ance of the one great aim. Withal, despite the uneasiness 
to which he is constantly a prey on account of the failures of 
others, no lack of confidence in the one to whom he is writing 
is suffered to appear. Each is not only exhorted and cheered, 



DIPLOMATIC MANAGEMENT 413 

but patted on the back with an implied approbation, which 
iu his own service constituted much of his well-deserved in- 
fiuence. He is as hearty and generous in his praises to Sir 
Sidney Smith, whom he never fully trusted, for his services 
at Acre, as he is to the valued friend, and pattern of all naval 
efficiency, Troubridge. To the Emperor of Russia he paid 
the politic attention of sending a detailed report of all that 
had been done about Malta, made to him as Grand Master of 
the Order, — a delicate and adroit flattery at the moment, for 
the Czar then valued himself more as the restorer of an an- 
cient order of chivalry than as the inheritor of a great Sov- 
ereignty ; and his position was further recognized by asking 
of him the insignia of the Order for Captain Ball and Lady 
Hamilton, 

This immense load of correspondence and anxiety was ad- 
ditional to the numerous unrecorded cares and interviews, 
relating to the routine work and maintenance of a great squad- 
ron, often left bare of resources from home, and to the sup- 
port of the destitute population of Malta, — sixty thousand 
souls ; and all was carried on amid the constant going and 
coming of the ambassador's house, kept open to naval officers 
and others. This public sort of life and excitement involved 
considerable expense, and was little to the taste of either 
Nelson or Hamilton, the latter of whom was now approaching 
his seventieth year ; but in it Lady Hamilton was in all her 
glory, overwhelmed with compliments, the victor of the Nile 
at her feet, and '^ making a great figure in our political line," 
to use her husband's words. " Except to the Court," wrote 
Nelson, replying to a censure from the Admiralty for failing 
to send a letter by a certain channel, when he had sent dupli- 
cates by two other conveyances, — " except to the Court, till 
after eight o'clock at night I never relax from business. I 
have had hitherto, the Board knows, no one emolument — no 
one advantage of a Commander-in-chief." It was in reference 
to this captious rebuff, received when immersed in cares, that 
he wrote to Spencer : " Do not, my dear Lord, let the Ad- 
miralty write harshly to me — my generous soul cannot bear 
it, being conscious it is entirely unmerited." 

While he was striving to gain assistance for the Maltese, 
he does not forget to sustain them with hopes, not always too 



414 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

well founded. He tells Ball he trusts the Messina troops will 
soou be with him. '' You may depend, in October, I will get 
2,000 men on shore at Malta. Niza is ordered to Lisbon, but 
I have directed his stay off Malta." He appeals personally to 
the British commander at Messina, and- to the E-ussian minis- 
ter at Palermo, reminding the latter how dear Malta and its 
Order were to his sovereign. '' Malta, my dear Sir, is in my 
thoughts sleeping or waking." The Portuguese, he tells him, 
are ordered home ; but, wishing Russian assistance, he does 
not say that he has stopped them, — as to which, indeed, he 
could not feel sure. 

The same object pressed upon him while in Port Mahon, 
and he succeeded, by his personal enthusiasm, in arousing 
Erskine's interest in the matter ; but the latter was loaded to 
the muzzle with objections. "Sir James," said Nelson to 
Troubridge, with the amusing professional prejudice they 
both entertained, " enters upon the difficulty of the undertak- 
ing in a true soldier way." " I am just come from Sir James," 
he wrote to Hamilton on the 13th of October. ''He sees all 
the difficulty of taking Malta in the clearest point of views, 
and therefore it became an arduous task to make him think 
that with God's blessing the thing was possible." He has, 
however, consented to prepare fifteen hundred men with stores 
and equipments, but only on condition that the Russians will 
also give a thousand, — a further draft on Nelson's dij^lomacy, 
— and a thousand be landed from the squadron, etc. Besides, 
there is the further difficulty that a superior officer is expected 
from England, and what will he say ? And will Erskine be 
justified in sending men before his entirely uncertain arrival ? 
It may be imagined what such proceedings were to Nelson's 
nervous, ardent, unhesitating temperament, and they elicited 
the characteristic comment, " This has been my first confer- 
ence. It has cost me four hours hard labour, and may be up- 
set by a fool." " My heart is, I assure yon, almost broke with 
this and other things," he wrote to Spencer. "If the enemy 
gets supplies in, we may bid adieu to Malta. This would 
complete my misery ; for I am afraid I take all services too 
much to heart. The accomplishing of them is my study, 
night and day." 

" My dear Sir James," he Avrites to Erskine after returning 



DIPLOMATIC MANAGEMENT 415 

to Palermo, "I am in desperation about Malta — we shall lose 
it, I am afraid, past redemption. I send you copies of Niza's 
and Ball's letters, also General Acton's, so you will see I have 
not been idle." As it is, Ball can hardly keep the inhabitants 
in hope of relief ; what then will it be if the Portuguese with- 
draw ? "If the islanders are forced again to join the French, 
we may not find even landing a very easy task, much less to 
get again our present advantageous position. I therefore en- 
treat for the honour of our King, that whether General Fox is 
arrived or not, at least the garrison of Messina maybe ordered 
to hold post in Malta until a sufficient force can be collected 
to attack it. ... I know well enough of what officers in your 
situation can do ; the delicacy of your feelings on the near 
approach of General Fox I can readily conceive ; but the time 
you know nothing about; this is a great and important mo- 
ment, and the only thing to be considered, is his 3Iajestij's 
service to stand still for an instant? . . . Was the call for 
these troops known at home, would they not order them to 
proceed when the service near at hand loudly calls for them ? 
tills is the only thing in my opinion for consideration. If we 
lose this opportunity it will be impossible to recall it." From 
this desperate appeal he turns to Ball, with words of encour- 
agement for his islanders. ** We shall soon hear to a cer- 
tainty of at least 5,000 Russian troops for the service of Malta. 
Within a month I hope to see 10,000 men in arms against La 
Valetta. I have sent for Troubridge and Martin, that I may 
get a force to relieve Niza. I trust he will not go till I can 
get not only a proper force to relieve his ships, but those of 
his people who are on shore." "The great order of all," he 
writes Erskine three weeks later, "is to destroy the power of 
the French. Two regiments for two months would probably, 
with the assistance of the Russians, give us Malta, liberate us 
from an enemy close to our doors, gratify the Emperor of 
Russia, protect our Levant trade, relieve a large squadron of 
ships from this service, and enable me the better to afford 
naval protection to the island of Minorca, and assist our allies 
on tlie northern coast of Italy, and to annoy the enemy on the 
coast of France." 

Nelson's entreaties and efforts met with success, sufficient at 
least to stay the ebbing tide. General Fox arrived in Minorca, 



416 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

gave permission for the garrison of Messina to go to Malta, 
and on tlie 25th of November Troubridge, bringing this news, 
arrived off Palermo. Nelson's haste did not permit the 
" Cnlloden " to anchor. Shifting his flag to a transport, he 
sent ont the " Foudroyant " to meet her, with orders for both 
to go to Messina, embark the garrison, and get off Malta as 
soon as possible. The " Northumberland," seventy-four, was 
also to join off Malta, forming a division to replace the Portu- 
guese squadron. The latter quitted the blockade in December, 
Nelson notifying Niza on the 18th of the month that he no 
longer considered him under his command. The Messina 
troops landed at Malta on the 10th. The British then had 
fifteen hundred men on tlie island, supported by two thousand 
Maltese, well disciplined and armed, besides a number of 
native irregulars upon whom only partial dependence could 
be placed. The Russians never came to take part. They got 
as far as Messina, but there received orders to go to Corfu, 
both ships and men. This was in pursuance of a change of 
policy in the Czar, who, being enraged at the conduct of his 
allies, particularly of the Austrians, in the late campaign, 
intended withdrawing from the Coalition, and was concen- 
trating troops at Corfu. This revived Nelson's fears for 
Malta. " I trust Graham will not think of giving the island 
to the French by withdrawing, till he receives orders from 
General Fox." The troops remained, but in numbers too 
small to admit active operations. The result was left perforce 
to the slow pressure of blockade ; and final success, insured 
mainly by Nelson's untiring efforts, was not attained until 
after he had left the Mediterranean. 

The six months of his independent command, though un- 
marked by striking incidents at sea, were crowded with events, 
important in themselves, but far more important as pregnant 
of great and portentous changes in the political and military 
conditions of Europe. When Keith passed the Straits in pur- 
suit of the Franco-Spanish fleet, on the 30th of July, the 
forces of the Coalition in Upper Italy were in the full tide of 
repeated victories and unchecked success. On that same day 
the fortress of Mantua, the siege of which in 1796 had stayed 
for nine months the triumphal progress of Bonaparte, was 
surrendered by the French, whose armies in the field, driven 



MILITARY EVENTS ON THE CONTINENT 417 

far to the westward, were maintaining a difficult position on 
the crests of the Apennines. Seeking to descend from there 
into the fields of Piedmont, they were met by Suwarrow, and 
on the 15th of August, at Novi, received once more a ruinous 
defeat, in which their commander-in-chief was slain. 

At this moment of success, instead of pressing onward to 
d rive the enemy out of Italy, and possibly to pursue him into 
France, it was decided that the Russians should be sent 
across the Alps into Switzerland, to take the place of a 
number of Austrians. The latter, in turn, were to move 
farther north, on the lower Rhine, to favor by a diversion 
an intended invasion of Holland by a combined force of 
Russians and British. This gigantic flank movement and 
change of plan resulted most disastrously. In the midst of 
it the French general Massena, commanding in Switzerland, 
the centre of the great hostile front which extended from 
the Mediterranean to the North Sea, made a vehement and 
sustained attack upon the Austro-Russians at Zurich, on the 
2oth of September. Gaining a complete victory, he drove 
the enemy back beyond the point where Suwarrow expected 
to make his junction. The veteran marshal, who had left 
Italy on the 11th of September, arrived two days after the 
Battle of Zurich was fought. Isolated in insufficient numbers 
from the friends he expected to meet, it was only after severe 
hardships and superhuman efforts, extending over ten days, 
that he at length, on the 9th of October, reached a place of 
safety at Ilanz. Declining further co-operation with the 
Austrians, and alleging the need of rest for his troops after 
their frightful exposure in the mountains, he withdrew into 
winter quarters in Bavaria at the end of the month. Thus 
Switzerland remained in possession of the French, inactivity 
continued in Italy, and the Czar, furious at the turn events 
had taken, was rapidly passing into hatred of both Austria 
and Great Britain. 

On the 9th of October, also, Bonaparte landed in France, 
after a six weeks' voyage from Alexandria. The immense 
consequences involved in this single event could not then 
be foreseen ; but it none the less caused mortification and 
regret to Nelson. It was a cardinal principle with him, 
vehemently and frequently uttered, that not a single French- 

27 



418 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

man should be allowed to return from Egypt ; and here their 
commander-in-chief had passed successfully from end to end 
of the station, unseen by any British cruiser. He did not, 
however, consider himself at fault, and his judgment may be 
allowed, although in his own ease. " If I could have had any 
cruisers, as was my plan, off Cape Bon, in Africa, and between 
Corsica and Toulon, Mr. Buonaparte could not probably have 
got to France." This he said to Earl Spencer. Elsewhere 
he wrote : " I have regretted sincerely the escape of Buona- 
parte; but those ships which were destined by me for the 
two places where he would cex'tainly have been intercepted, 
were, from the Admiralty thinking, doubtless, that the 
Russians woiild do something at sea, obliged to be at Malta, 
and other services which I thought the Russian Admiral 
would have assisted me in — therefore, no blame lies at my 
door." He took some comfort in contrasting the stealthy 
return of the French general, with the great armada that 
accompanied his departure. "Ko Crusader ever returned 
with more humility — contrast his going in L'Orient, &c. &c." 
A report that Bonaparte had passed Corsica reached Nelson 
on October 24th. The same day came despatches from Sir 
Sidney Smith, narrating a disastrous defeat sustained by the 
Turks on the shores of Aboukir Bay. Smith's period of com- 
mand in the Levant had been chiefly, and brilliantly, distin- 
guished by the successful defence of Acre against Bonaparte. 
The latter, threatened b}^ simultaneous attacks by the Turks 
from Syria and from the sea, had determined to anticipate 
such a combination by going him^self against the enemy on 
the land side, before the weather conditions made it possible 
to disembark any formidable body of men on the shores of 
Egypt. Starting with this purpose in February, he had pro- 
ceeded with slight resistance until the 18th of March, when 
his army appeared before Acre. Smith was then lying in 
the roads with two ships-of-the-line. The siege which ensued 
lasted for sixty -two days, so great was Bonaparte's per- 
tinacity, and anxiety to possess the place ; and in its course 
Smith displayed, not only courage and activity, which had 
never been doubted, but a degree of conduct and sound judg- 
ment that few expected of him. His division was fortunate 
enough to capture the French siege train, which had to be 



AFFAIRS OF EGYPT 419 

sent by water, and he very much disturbed the enemy's coast- 
wise communications, besides contributing materially to the 
direction of the defence, to which the Turks, though brave 
enough, were not adequate. After several desperate assai;lts 
the siege was raised on the 20th of May, and Bonaparte 
retreated to Egypt, regaining Cairo on the 14th of June. 

Following up the success at Acre, a Turkish fleet of thirteen 
ships-of-the-line anchored in Aboukir Bay on the 11th of July, 
attended by a body of transports carrying troops, variously 
estimated at from ten to thirty thousand. Smith with his 
ships accompanied the expedition. The Turks landed, and 
stormed the castle of Aboukir; but on the 25th Bonaparte, 
having concentrated his forces rapidly, fell upon them and 
totally defeated them. All who had landed were either 
killed, driven into the sea and drowned, or taken prisoners ; 
the commander-in-chief being among the latter. Four weeks 
later, as is already known, Bonaparte embarked for France. 

It was thus conclusively demonstrated that for the present 
at least, and until the French numbers were further diminished 
by the inevitable losses of disease and battle, the Turks could 
not regain control of Egypt. On the other hand, it was 
equally evident, and was admitted by both Bonaparte and 
his able successor, Kleber, that without reinforcements, which 
could not be sent while the British controlled the sea, the 
end of the French occupation was only a question of time. 
After Bonaparte's departure, Kleber wrote home strongly to 
this effect. His letters, being addressed to the Government, 
fell upon arrival into Bonaparte's hands ; but, with these 
convictions, he was ready to enter into an arrangement for 
the evacuation of the country, upon condition of being allowed 
to return freely to Europe. 

Such also appears to have been the disposition of the 
British representatives in the East. Immediately after tak- 
ing over the command in the Levant from Troubridge, Smith 
gave him, among other papers, a form of passport which he 
intended to use, permitting individual Frenchmen to go to 
Europe by sea. This Troubridge handed to Nelson, telling 
him also that it was Smith's intention to send word into 
Alexandria, that all French ships might pass to France. 
This passport, adopted after Smith had been to Constant!- 



420 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



iiople, had doubtless the sanction of the joint minister, his 
brother, and was signed by himself both as plenipotentiary 
and naval officer. Nelson had by this time been instructed 
that Smith was under his command, and he at once sent him 
an order, couched in the most explicit, positive, and peremp- 
tory terms, Avhich merit especial attention because Smith dis- 
obeyed them. " An this is in direct opposition to 7ny opinion, 
which is, never to svjfer any one individual Frenchman to quit 
Egypt — I must therefore strictly el uirge and command you^ 
never to give any French ship or man leave to quit Egj-pt. 
And I must also desire that you u-ill opposchy every means in 
your p>oioer, any permission which may be attem2)ted to be given 
by cmy foreigner, Admiral, General, or other person; and you 
will acquaint those persons, that I shall not pay the smallest 
attention to any such passport after your notification ; and 
you are to jnct my orders in force, not on any piretence to permit 
a single Frenchman to leave Egypt.^' It seems clear from 
these expressions that Nelson had gathered, thi-ough Trou- 
bridge, that it was the policy of the Sultan and of the British 
representatives to get the French out of Egypt at any cost, — 
to look, in short, to local interests rather than to the general 
policy of the Allies. This he was determined to prevent by 
instructions so comprehensive, yet so precise, as to leave no 
loophole for evasion. 

Here matters seem to have rested for a time. Smith 
could scarcely dare to disregard such orders at once, and 
Bonaparte was not yet disposed openly to confess failure by 
seeking terms. In the autumn of 1799, however, the Earl of 
Elgin went to Constantinople as ambassador, Spencer Smith 
dropping to secretary of embassy, and his brother remaining 
on the Egyptian coast. Elgin was far from being in accord 
with Smith's general line of conduct, which was marked with 
presumption and self-sufficiency, and in the end he greatly 
deplored the terms " granted to the French, so far beyond our 
expectation ; " but he shared the belief that to rid Egypt of 
the French was an end for which considerable sacrifices should 
be made, and his correspondence with Smith expressed this 
conviction. When prepossessions such as this exist among a 
number of men associated with one another, they are apt, as 

^ The italics to this point are Nelson's ; afterwards the author's. 






CONVENTION OF EL ARISH 421 

iu the case of Admiral Man consulting with his captains, to 
result iu some ill-advised step, bearing commonly the stamp 
of concern for local interests, and forgetfulness of general 
considerations. The upshot in this particular instance was 
the conclusion of a Convention, known as that of El Arish, 
between the Turks and the French, signed on board Smith's 
ship on the 24th of January, ISUO, by which this army of vet- 
erans was to be permitted to return to France unmolested, and 
free at once to take the field against the allies of Turkey and 
Great Britain, at the moment when Bonaparte's unrivalled 
powers of administration were straining every nerve, to restore 
the French forces from the disorganization into which they 
had fallen, and to prepare foi- the spring campaign. 

Smith, though present, did not sign this precious paper, 
which, in a letter to Hamilton, he called "the gratifjdng ter- 
mination of his labours ; " but he had in his hand the orders 
of his immediate superior, and temporary commander-in- 
chief, to notify any "foreigner, general, or admiral," that 
the execution of such an agreement would not be permitted 
by the British Navy, and it would have been his own duty to 
stop any ships attempting to carry it out, until other orders 
were received. His powers as joint plenipotentiary having 
ceased, he was now simply the naval officer. As it happened, 
Keith, who by this time had relieved Nelson, brought out 
from England clear directions from tlie Government not to 
allow any transaction of this kind ; and although he person- 
ally favored the policy of evacuation, feeling perhaps the 
inconvenience of detaching ships so far from his centre of 
operations, he was not a man to trifle with orders. Rumors 
of what was going on had evidently reached him, for on the 
8th of January, a fortnight before the convention was signed, 
he wrote to Kleber a letter, which he directed Smith to de- 
liver, thus placing it out of the power of that very independent 
officer to leave any mistake as to actual conditions iu the mind 
of the French general. To the latter he said : " I have posi- 
tive orders not to consent to any capitulation with the French 
troops, at least unless they lay down their arms, surrender 
themselves prisoners of war, and deliver up all the ships and 
stores of the port of Alexandria to the Allied Powers." Even 
in such case they would not be allowed to leave Egypt until 



422 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

exchanged. Any persons that attempted to return, pursuant 
to an arrangement with one of the Allies, exclusive of the 
others, as the El-Arish Convention was, would be made 
prisoners of war. 

Nelson's opinions in this matter had never wavered. As 
rumors of what was brewing got about, he wrote to the Earl 
of Elgin, on the 21st of December, 1800 : " I own my hope yet 
is, that the Sublime Porte will never permit a single french- 
man to quit Egypt; and I own myself wicked enough to wish 
them all to die in that country they chose to invade. We 
have scoundrels of Erench enough in Europe without them." 
" I never would consent to one of them returning to the Con- 
tinent of Europe during the war," he tells Spencer Smith. 
" I wish them to perish in Egypt, and give a great lesson to 
the world of the justice of the Almighty." When Elgin, think- 
ing him still commander-in-chief, sent him the Convention, he 
replied formally : " I shall forward the papers to Lord Keith, 
who Avill answer your Excellency. But I cannot help most 
sincerely regretting that ever any countenance was given to 
the Turks to enter into such a treaty Avith the Erench ; for I 
ever held it to be impossible to permit that army to return to 
Europe, but as prisoners of war, and in that case, not to 
France. And was I commander-in-chief, even when the thing 
was done, I should have refused to ratify any consent or 
approbation of Sir Sidney Smith, and have wrote to both the 
Grand Vizir and the French General, the impossibility of per- 
mitting a vanquished army to be placed by one Ally in a posi- 
tion to attack another Ally." The last phrase put the facts 
in a nut-shell, and illustrates Avell Nelson's power of going 
straight to the root of a matter, disregai'dful of confusing side- 
issues, of policy or timidity. To Hamilton he wrote passion- 
ately concerning the manifold difficulties caused to all, except 
the Turks and the Smiths. ''If all the wise heads had left 
them to God Almighty, after the bridge was broke, all would 
have ended well. For I differ entirely with my commander-in- 
chief, in wishing they were permitted to return to France ; 
and, likewise, with Lord Elgin on the great importance of 
removing them from Egypt." 

"I have wrote to Lord Keith, and home," said Nelson to 
Sir Sidney Smith on the 15tli of January, "that I did not 



HIS RELATIONS WITH KEITH 423 

give credit that it was possible for you to give any passport 
foi" a single Freuchiuau, much less the Army, after uiy posi- 
tive order of March 18th, 171)9." The words show what reports 
had already got about of the general trend of policy, on the 
part of the Porte and the British representatives ; but the 
irony of the matter as regards Nelson is, that Smith disobeyed 
his orders, as he himself, six months before, had disobeyed 
Keith's ; and for the same reason, tliat he on the spot was a 
better judge of local conditions and recent developments than 
one at a distance. To one, Naples was more important than 
Minorca, more important than a half-dozen ships in a possible 
fleet action ; to the other, Egypt was more important than the 
presence of sixteen thousand veterans, more or less, on a 
European battle-field. It is impossible and bootless, to weigh 
the comparative degree of culpability involved in breaches of 
orders which cannot be justified. 

On the IGtli of January, 1800, Nelson, who some days before 
had been notified by Keith of his approach, and directed to 
place himself under his command, left Palermo for Leghorn, 
arriving on the 20th. The commander-in-chief was already 
there in the " Queen Charlotte." On the 2oth they sailed to- 
gether for Palermo, and after nine days' stay in that port went 
on again for Malta, which they reached on the 15th of February. 
No incident of particular interest occurred during these three 
weeks, but Nelson's letters to the Hamiltons show that he was 
chafing under any act in his superior which could be construed 
into a slight. "I feel all, and notwithstanding my desire to 
be as humble as the lowest midshipman, perhaps, I cannot 
submit to be much lower, I am used to have attention paid me 
from his superiors." " To say how I miss your house and 
company would be saying little ; but in truth you and Sir 
William have so spoiled me, that I am not happy anywhere 
else but with you, nor have I an idea that I ever can be." 
Keith's comment — the other point of view — is worth quoting. 
" Anything absurd coming from the quarter you mention does 
not surprise me," he wrote to Paget, who succeeded Hamilton 
as minister. " The whole was a scene of fulsome vanity and 
absurdity all the lour/ eight days I was at Palermo." ^ 

When Keith returned, the capture of Malta, and of the two 
1 The Paget Papers, London, 1896, vol. i. p. 200, 



424 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ships-of-the-line wliicli had escaped from the Battle of the 
Nile, were, by common consent, all that remained to do, in 
order to round off and bring to a triumphant conclusion Nelson's 
Mediterranean career. Fortune strove hard against his own 
weakness to add all these jewels to his crown, but she strove 
in vain. " We may truly call him a heaven-hovn Admiral, 
upon whom fortune smiles wherever he goes." So wrote Ball 
to Lady Hamilton, alluding to the first of the favors flung at 
his head. " We have been carrying on the blockade of Malta 
sixteen months, during which time the enemy never attempted 
to throw in great succours. His Lordship arrived off here 
the day they were within a few leagues of the island, captured 
the principal ships, and dispersed the rest, so that not one has 
reached the port." It was indeed a marvellous piece of what 
men call luck. Nelson had never gone near Malta since 
October, 1798, till Keith took him there on the 15th of Febru- 
ary, 1800. The division had no sooner arrived at the island, 
tlian a frigate brought word of a French squadron having been 
seen off the west end of Sicily. It Avas then blowing strong 
from southeast, and raining. Keith took his own station off 
the mouth of the harbor, placed other ships where he thought 
best, and signalled Nelson to chase to windward with three 
ships-of-the-line, which were afterwards joined by a fourth, 
then cruising on the southeast of the island. The next day 
the wind shifted to northwest, but it was not until the morn- 
ing of the 18th that the enemy were discovered. Guns were 
then heard to the northward, by those on board the " Fou- 
droyant," which made all sail in pursuit, and soon sighted the 
"Alexander" chasing four French sail. ''Pray God we may 
get alongside of them," wrote Nelson in his journal ; "the 
event I leave to Providence. I think if I can take one 74 by 
myself, I would retire, and give the staff to more able hands." 
" I feel anxious to get up with these ships," he wrote to Lady 
Hamilton, "and shall be unhappy not to take 'them myself, 
for first ray greatest happiness is to serve my gracious King 
and Country, and I am envious only of glory; for if it be a 
sin to covet glory, I am tlie most offending soul alive. But 
here lam in a heavy sea and thick fog — Oh, God! the wind 
subsided — but I trust to Providence I shall have them. ISth 
in the evening, I have got her — Le Genereux — thank God! 



b 



CAPTURE OF "LE GENEREUX" 425 

12 out of 13, onely the Guillaurae Telle remaining ; I am after 
the others." The enemy's division had consisted of this 
seventy-foui-, a large transport, also captured, and three cor- 
vettes which escaped. 

An account of Nelson on the quarter-deck on this occasion 
has been transmitted by an eye-witness, whose recollections, 
committed to paper nearly forty years later, are in many points 
evidently faulty, but in the present instance reflect a frame of 
mind in the great admiral in perfect keeping with the words 
last quoted from his own letter. The writer was then a mid- 
shipman of the " Foudroyant ; " and the scene as described 
opens with a hail from a lieutenant at the masthead, with his 
telescope on the chase. 

'"Deck there! the stranger is evidently a man of war — 
she is a line-of-battle-ship, my lord, and going large on the 
starboard tack.' 

'"Ah! an enemy, Mr. Stains. I pray God it maybe Le 
Genereux. The signal for a general chase, Sir Ed'ard, (the 
Nelsonian pronunciation of Edward,) make the Foudroyant 
fly!' 

" Thus spoke the heroic Nelson ; and every exertion that 
emulation could inspire was used to crowd the squadron with 
canvas, the Northumberland taking the lead, with the flag- 
ship close on her quarter. 

'' 'This will not do, Sir Ed'ard ; it is certainly Le Genereux, 
and to my flag-ship she can alone surrender. Sir Ed'ard, we 
must and shall beat the Northumberland.' 

"'I Avill do the utmost, my lord; get the engine to work on 
the sails — hang butts of water to the stays — pipe the ham- 
mocks down, and each man place shot in them — slack the stays, 
knock up the wedges, and give the masts play — start off the 
water, Mr. James, and pump the ship.' The Foudroyant is 
drawing a-head, and at last takes the lead in the chase. ' The 
admiral is working his fin, (the stump of his right arm,) do 
not cross his hawse, I advise you.' 

" The advice was good, for at that moment Nelson opened 
furiously on the quarter-master at the conn. * I '11 knock 
you off your perch, you rascal, if you are so inattentive. 
— Sir Ed'ard, send your best quarter-master to the weather- 
wheel.' 



426 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

"' A strange sail a-head of the chase! ' called the look-out 
man. 

" ' Youngster, to the mast-head. What ! going without 

your glass, and be d d to you ? Let me know what she 

is immediately.' 

" ' A sloop of war, or frigate, my lord,' shouted the young 
signal-midshipman. 

"'Demand her number.' 

'' ' The Success, my lord.' 

" ' Captain Peard ; signal to cut off the flying enemy — 
great odds, though — thirty-two small guns to eighty large 
ones.' 

" 'The Success has hove-to athwart-hawse of the Genereux, 
and is firing her larboard broadside. The Frenchman has 
hoisted his tri-colour, with a rear-admiral's flag.' 

" ' Bravo — Success, at her again ! ' 

" ' She has wore round, my lord, and firing her starboard 
broadside. It has winged her, my lord — her fl^'ing kites are 
flying away all together.' The enemy is close on the Success, 
who must receive her tremendous broadside. The Genereux 
opens her fire on her little enemy, and every person stands 
aghast, afraid of the consequences. The smoke clears away, 
and there is the Success, crippled, it is true, but, bull-dog like, 
bearing up after the enemy. 

" ' The signal for the Success to discontinue the action, and 
come under my stern,' said Lord Nelson : ' she has done well, 
for her size. Try a shot from the lower-deck at her, Sir 
Ed'ard.' 

" ' It goes over her.' 

"'Beat to quarters, and fire coolly and deliberately at her 
masts and yards.' 

" Le Genereux at this moment opened her fire on us ; and, as 
a shot passed through the mizen stay-sail, Lord Nelson, pat- 
ting one of the youngsters on the head, asked him jocularly how 
he relished the music ; and observing something like alarm 
depicted on his countenance, consoled him with the informa- 
tion, that Charles XII. ran away from the first shot he heard, 
though afterwards he was called ' The Great,' and deservedly, 
from his bravery. *I, therefore,' said Lord Nelson, 'hope 
much from you in future.' 



CAPTURE OF "LE GfiNEREUX " 427 

''Here the Northumberland opened her fire, and down 
came the tri-eolored ensign, amidst the thunder of our united 
cannon." ^ 

According to Keith, Nelson "on this occasion, as on all 
others, conducted himself with skill, and great address, in 
comprehending my signals, wliich the state of the weather led 
me greatly to suspect." Nelson's account to Hamilton was, 
"By leaving my admiral without signal, for which I may he 
broke, I took these French villains." "I have wrote to Loi'd 
Spencer," he tells his eldest brother, "and have sent him my 
journal, to show that the Genereux was taken b}^ me, and my 
plan — that my quitting Lord Keith was at my own risk, and 
for which, if I had not succeeded, I might have been broke. 
The way he went, the Genereux never could have been 
taken." In a letter to Lord Minto he attributed his success 
to his knowledge of all the local conditions, acquired by seven 
3'ears' experience. In his anxiety to make this instance prove 
his case, in the previous disobedience to Keith, for which the 
Admiralty had censured him. Nelson overreached himself and 
certainly fell into an ungenerous action. His vaunt of suc- 
cess by the road of disobedience rested only on the fact that he 
had failed to see Keith's signal. This the latter did not know, 
and evidently considered he had complied with its spirit. 
The signal to chase to windward was not strained to disobedi- 
ence in being construed to search a fairly wide area for the 
enemy, keeping the rendezvous, which was also the enemy's 
destination, to leeward, so as to be readily regained. The 
"Queen Charlotte," Keith's flagship, covered the inner line, 
and, being a first-rate, was competent to handle any force 
that could come out of Toulon. There is a good deal of 
human nature in this captious unofficial attack on a supe- 
rior, whose chief fault, as towards himself, was that he had 
been the victim of disobedience ; but it is not pleasant to see 
in a man so truly great. 

The "Genereux" carried the flag of a rear-admiral, who was 

1 Nelsonian Reminiscences, by liieiitenant G. S. Parsons. The author has 
been able to test Parsons' stories sufficiently to assure himself that they can- 
not be quoted to establish historical fact ; but such scenes as here given, or 
how many glasses of wine Nelson drank at dinner, or that the writer himself 
was out of clean shirts, when asked to dine at the admiral's table, are trivi- 
alities which memory retains. 



428 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

killed in the action. Nelson seized the opportunity of further 
conciliating the Czar, by sending the sword of this officer to 
hiui, as Grand Master of the Order of Malta. Upon rejoining 
Keith, he reported in person, as custom demands. '' Lord 
Keith received my account and myself like a philosopher (but 
very unlike you)," he wrote to Hamilton; '*it did not, that I 
could perceive, cause a pleasing muscle in his face." " Had 
you seen the Peer receive me," he wrote to Lady Hamilton 
the same day, "I know not what you would have done; but I 
can guess. But never mind. I told him that I had made a 
vow, if I took the Genereux by myself, it was my intention to 
strike my flag. To which he made no answer." What could 
he very well say, if a man chose to throw away his chances, 
especially when that man was a subordinate who a short time 
before had flatly refused to obey his orders. Soreness and 
testiness had full swing in Nelson at this time; at some fan- 
cied neglect, lie wrote Troubridge a letter which reduced that 
gallant officer to tears. 

Between Palermo and Malta Keith had received letters 
from General Melas, commanding the Austrian army in 
Piedmont, giving the plan of the approaching campaign, in 
which, as the Austrians were to besiege Genoa, and advance 
to the Riviera, much depended upon naval co-operation. 
Rightly judging that to be the quarter calling for the naval 
commander-in-chief, he was anxious to get away. On the 24th 
of February he ordered Nelson to take charge of the block- 
ade, and "to adopt and prosecute the necessar)- measures for 
contributing to the complete reduction of Malta." Short of 
the chief command, which he coveted and grudged, Nelson 
himself could not have contrived a position better fitted to 
crown his work in the Mediterranean. AVithin the harbor of 
La Valetta, concentrating there the two objects yet to be at- 
tained, — Valetta itself being one, — was the " Guillaume 
Tell," the thirteenth ship, which alone was lacking now to 
complete the tale of the trophies of the Nile. Yet the fair 
prospect of success, inevitable since the capture of the '' Gene- 
reux" had destroyed the French hopes of relief, brought to 
Nelson nothing biit dismay. "My Lord," he replied the same 
day, "my state of health is such, that it is impossible I can 
much lon<?er remain here. Without some rest. I am gone. I 






HIS RELATIONS WITH KEITH 429 

must therefore, whenever I find the service will admit of it, 
request your permission to go to my friends, at Palermo, for a 
few weeks, and leave the command here to Commodore 
Troubridge. Nothing but absolute necessity obliges me to 
write this letter." " I could no more stay fourteen days 
longer here, than fourteen years," he said in a private let- 
ter to Keith of the same date. 

By the next day he had recognized that even he could not 
leave at once the task appointed him, without discredit. 
" My situation," he then wrote to Hamilton, " is to me very 
irksome, but how at this moment to get rid of it is a great 
difficulty. The French ships here [" Guillaurae Tell " and 
others] are preparing for sea ; the Brest fleet, Lord Keith 
says, may be daily expected, and with all this I, am very 
unwell. . . . The first moment which offers with credit to 
myself I shall assuredly give you my company. . . . Lord 
Keith is commander-in-chief, and I have not been kindly 
treated." His tried friends, Troubridge and Ball, realized 
the false step he was about to take, but they could not change 
his purpose. " Remember, my Lord," wrote the former, "the 
prospects are rather good at present of reducing this place, 
and that William Tell, Diane, ^ and Justice,^ are the only three 
ships left from the Nile fleet. I beseech you hear the en- 
treaties of a sincere friend, and do not go to Sicily for the 
present. Cruizing may be unpleasant. Leave the Foudroy- 
ant outside, and hoist your flag in the CuUoden, to carry on 
operations with the General. Everything shall be done to 
make it comfortable and pleasing to you : a month Avill do 
all. If you comply with my request, I shall be happy, as I 
shall then be convinced I have not forfeited your friendship." 
Ten days later, March 5th, he Avrote again : '' One part of 
your Lordship's letter distresses me much, your determina- 
tion to quit us, and of course the service, for I can draw no 
line between the one and the other. There is nothing I would 
not do to prevent it. ... I beseech your Lordship hear the 
entreaties of a sincere friend, and stay until the fall of this 
place." " I dined with his Lordship yesterday, who is appar- 
ently in good health," wrote Ball to Lady Hamilton, "but he 
complains of indisposition and the necessity of repose. I do 

1 Frigates. 



430 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

not think a short stay here will hurt his health, particularly 
as his ship is at anchor, and his mind not harassed. Trou- 
bridge and I are extremely anxious that the French ships, 
and the French garrison of La Valetta, shall surrender to him. 
I would not urge it if I were not convinced that it will ulti- 
mately add both to his honour and happiness." 

The fear of his friends that he would lose honor, by not 
resisting inclination, is evident — undisguised; but they could 
not prevail. On the 4th of March he wrote to Lady Hamil- 
ton : " My health is in such a state, and to say the truth, an 
uneasy mind at being taught my lesson like a school boy, 
that my determination is made to leave Malta on the 15th 
morning of this month, on the first moment after the wind 
comes favourable ; unless I am sure that I shall get hold of 
the French ships." Keith's directions had been full and ex- 
plicit on details, and this Nelson seems to have resented. 
Among the particular orders was one that Palermo, being so 
distant from Malta, should be discontinued as the rendezvous, 
and Syracuse substituted for it ; Nelson was, however, at 
liberty to use Messina or Augusta, both also on the east coast 
of Sicily, if he preferred. It will be remembered that Nelson 
himself, before he fell under the influence of Naples, had ex- 
pressed his intention to make Syracuse the base of his opera- 
tions. Coming as this change did, as one of the first acts of 
a new commander-in-chief, coinciding with his own former 
judgment, it readily took the color of an implied censure upon 
his prolonged stay at Palermo — an echo of the increasing 
scandal that attended it. 

On the 10th of March he left Malta for Palermo in the 
" Foudroyant," sending the ship back, however, to take her 
place in the blockade, and hoisting his own flag on board a 
transport. His mind was now rapidly turning towards a final 
retirement from the station, a decision accelerated by the cap- 
ture of the " Guillaume Tell." This eighty-gun ship started 
on the night of JNFarch 29th to run out from La Valetta, to 
relieve the famished garrison from feeding the twelve hundred 
men she carried. It Avas a singular illustration of the good 
fortune of the "heaven-born" admiral, to repeat Ball's expres- 
sion, that the "Foudroyant" arrived barely in time, only a 
few hours before the event, her absence from which might 



CAPTURE OF THE "GUILLAUME TELL" 431 

have resulted in the escape of the enemy, and a just censure 
upon Nelson. "If the Foudroyant had not arrived," wrote 
Troubridge to him, "nothing we have could have looked at 
her." The French ship was sighted first by a frigate, the 
" Penelope," Captain Blackwood, which hung gallantly upon 
her quarters, as Nelson in former days had dogged the " Ca 
Ira" with the "Agamemnon," until the heavier ships could 
gather round the quarry. The " Guillaume Tell," necessarily 
intent only on escape from overpowering numbers, could not 
turn aside to crush the small antagonist, which one of her 
broadsides might have swept out of existence; yet even so, 
the frigate decided the issue, for she shot away the main 
and mizzen topmasts of the French vessel, permitting the 
remainder of the British to come up. No ship was ever more 
gallantly fought than the " Guillaume Tell ; " the scene would 
have been well worthy even of Nelson's presence. More 
could not be said, but Nelson was not there. She had shaken 
off the "Penelope" and the "Lion," sixty-four, when the 
"Foudroyant" drew up at six in the morning. "At half-past 
six," says the latter's log, ''shot away the [French] main 
and mizen-masts : saw a man nail the French ensign to the 
stump of the mizen-mast. Five minutes past eight, shot away 
the enemy's foremast. Ten minutes past eight, all lier masts 
being gone by the board, the enemy struck his colours, and 
ceased firing." The last of the fleet in Aboukir Bay had 
surrendered to Nelson's ship, but not to Nelson's flag. 

Troubridge took this occasion again to entreat his presence 
at Malta. " I would have given one thousand guineas your 
health had permitted your being in the Foudroyant ; " and 
on the same day, April 1st, in a letter marked "private," he 
repeats, "Will your Lordship come and hoist your flag in the 
Culloden ? Kely on everything I can do to make it pleas- 
ant." On the 13th he is yet more pressing: "Your friends 
absolutely, as far as they dare, insist on your staying to sign 
the capitulation. Be on your guard, I see a change in language 
since Lord Keith was here." Himself suffering from frequent 
severe illness, and harassed by officers of his own grade dis- 
regarding his orders, Troubridge still stuck to Malta, and he 
clearly believed Nelson could do the same under the conditions 
suggested. If so, the efficiency of the service, as well as his 



432 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

own reputation, demanded of the admiral to be there instead 
of at Palermo. 

"I am sensible/' wrote Kelson to Sir Edward Berry, the 
captain of the " Foudroyant," " of your kindness in wishing 
my presence at the finish of the Egyptian fleet, but I have 
no cause for sorrow. The thing could not be better done, 
and I would not for all the world rob you of one particle of 
your well-earned laurels." In the matter of glory Nelson 
might well yield much to another, nor miss what he gave ; but 
there is a fitness in things, and it was not fitting that the com- 
mander of the division should have been absent when such 
an event was likely to happen. " My task is done, my health 
is lost, and the orders of the great Earl St. Vincent are com- 
pletely fidfilled." ''I have wrote to Lord Keith," he tells 
Spencer, " for permission to return to England, when you 
will see a broken-hearted man. My spirit cannot submit pa- 
tiently." But by this time, if the First Lord's forbearance 
was not exhausted, his patience very nearly was, and already 
a letter had been sent, which, while couched in terms of 
delicate consideration, nevertheless betrayed the deep dis- 
appointment that had succeeded to admiration for services 
so eminent, and for a spirit once so indomitable : " To your 
letter of the 20th of March, all I shall say is, to express my 
extreme regret that your health should be such as to oblige 
you to quit your station off Malta, at a time when I should 
suppose there must be the finest prospect of its reduction. I 
should be very sorry that j'ou did not accomplish that business 
in person, as the Guillaume Tell is your due, and that ship 
ought not to strike to any other. If the enemy should come 
into the jNlediterranean, and whenever they do, it will be sud- 
denl}^, I sliould be much concerned to hear that you learnt of 
their arrival in that sea, either on shore or in a transport at 
]*alermo." 

A nearer approach to censure soon followed. On the 9th 
of May, orders were sent to Keith, that if Nelson's health 
rendered him unfit for duty, he was to be permitted to return 
home by sea when opportunity offered, or by land if he pre- 
ferred. Earl Spencer wrote him at the same time a private 
letter, in which disapprobation was too thinly masked by care- 
fully chosen words to escape attention: "It is by no means 



DISAPPROBATION OP THE ADMIRALTY. 433 

my wish, or intention to call you away from service, but having 
observed that you have been under the necessity of quitting 
your station off Malta, on account of your health, which I 
am persuaded you could not have thought of doing without 
such necessity, it appeared to me much more advisable for 
you to come home at once, than to be obliged to remain in- 
active at Palermo, while active service was going on in other 
parts of the station. I should still much prefer your remain- 
ing to complete the reduction of Malta, which I flatter myself 
cannot be very far distant, and I still look with anxious ex- 
pectation to the Guillaume Tell striking to your flag. But 
if, unfortunately, these agreeable events are to be prevented, 
by your having too much exhausted yourself in the service to 
be equal to follow them up, I am quite clear, and I believe 
I am joined in opinion by all your friends here, that you will 
be more likely to recover your health and strength in Eng- 
land than in an inactive situation at a Foreign Court, how- 
ever pleasing the respect and gratitude shown to you for your 
services may be, and no testimonies of respect and gratitude 
from that Court to you can be, I am convinced, too great for 
the very essential services you have rendered it. I trust that 
you will take in good part what I have taken the liberty to 
write to you as a friend." 

Both these letters reached Nelson in June, at Leghorn, on 
his way home. The underlying censure did not escape him, — 
"your two letters gave me much pain," he replied, — but he 
showed no traces of self-condemnation, or of regret for the 
past. Lord Minto, who was now ambassador at Vienna, wrote 
thence in March of this year, before the question of going 
home was decided : " I have letters from Nelson and Lady 
Hamilton. It does not seem clear whether he will go home. 
I hope he will not for his own sake, and he will at least, I 
hope, take Malta first. He does not seem at all conscious of 
the sort of discredit he has fallen into, or the cause of it, for 
he still writes, not wisely, about Lady H. and all that. But 
it is hard to condemn and use ill a hero, as he is in his own 
element, for being foolish about a woman who has art enough 
to make fools of many wiser than an admiral." Many years 
later, immediately after the parting which he did not then 
know was the last, Minto said of him, "He is in many points 

28 



434 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

a really great man, in others a baby." Nelson himself, con- 
scious of the diligence which he had used in the administra- 
tion of his wide command and its varied interests, put out of 
court all other considerations of propriety. '' I trust you and 
all my friends will believe," he told Spencer, " that mine 
cannot be an inactive life, although it may not carry all the 
outward parade of much ado ahuut nothing.'" 

Had the Hamiltons remained in Palermo, Nelson would 
have been forced to a choice between leaving her and the 
Mediterranean, or yielding a submission to orders which to 
the last he never gave, when fairly out of signal distance. 
But the Foreign Office had decided that Sir William should 
not return after the leave for which he had applied ; and in 
the beginning of March it Avas known at Palermo that his 
successor had been appointed. This Nelson also learned, at 
the latest, when he came back there on the 16th. To one 
correspondent he wrote, on the 28th, " Most probably my 
health Avill force me to retire in April, for I am worn out with 
fatigue of body and mind," and his application was sent in on 
the 6th of the latter month, after news of the " Guillaume 
Tell's " capture. On the 22d Hamilton presented his letters 
of recall, and on the 24th he and Lady Hamilton, with a party, 
embarked with Nelson on board the "Foudroyant" for a trip 
to Syracuse and Malta, from which they all returned to 
Palermo on the first of June. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Nelson leaves the Mediterranean. — The Journey Overland 
THROUGH Germany. — Arrival in England. — Separation from 
Lady Nelson. — Hoists his Flag in the Channel Fleet, under 
Lord St. Vincent. 

June, 1800-January, ISOl. Age, 42. 

AT the time JSTelson and the Hamiltons returned to 
Palermo, the Queen of Kaples was wishing, for politi- 
cal reasons, to visit Vienna. To meet this wish Nelson took 
the " Foudroyant " and "Alexander " off the blockade of 
]\Ialta, that they might carry herself and suite to Leghorn, 
together with the Hamiltons. He clung also to the hope that 
Keith would give him his powerful flagship to return to Eng- 
land, in which case the Hamiltons would go with him. '•' I 
go with our dear friends Sir William and Lady Hamilton," 
he wrote to Lord IMinto ; " but wliether by water or land 
depends on the Avill of Lord Keith. IMay all orders be as 
punctually obeyed," alluding to the completion of the destruc- 
tion of the Nile fleet by the capture of the •' Guillaume Tell," 
" but never again an oflicer at the close of what I must, with- 
out being thought vain (for such I am represented by enemies), 
call a glorious career, be so treated ! " 

Keith's opinion of Nelson's obedience was probably some- 
what different. The latter had written him on the 12th of 
May, that, being under an old promise to carry the Queen to 
the Continent, he proposed to take the two ships-of-the-line 
for that purpose, and Keith sent him a letter forbidding him 
to do so, and directing them to be sent back at once to Malta. 
Nelson, it is true, did not receive this ; but it is impossible 
to reconcile Avith attention to orders the diversion of two 
ships of their force from the singularly important station 
appointed them by the commander-in-chief, without reference 
to him, and using them to carry about foreign sovereigns. 
On arriving in Leghorn, on the 14th of June, Nelson an- 



436 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

uounced the fact to Keith, with apparent perfect uncon- 
sciousness that the latter coukl be other than charmed. '•' I 
was obliged to bring the Alexander, or the party never could 
have been accommodated : I therefore trust you will ap- 
prove of it." ''I was so displeased by the withdrawing of the 
ships from before Malta," wrote Keith to Paget, "and with 
other proceedings, that her Majesty did not take any notice 
of me latterly." It would seem also that some harm had 
come of it. "What a clamour, too, letting in the ships to 
Malta will occasion. I assure you nothing has given me 
more real concern, it was so near exhausted." ''Had not 
Nelson quitted the blockade," he wrote a Aveek later, "and 
taken the ships off the station, it might have fallen about 
this time." ^ 

Lord Keith had been engaged for six weeks past in the 
famous blockade and siege of Genoa, the garrison of which, 
spent with famine and disease, marched out on the 5th of 
June, 1800. On the 14th — the day Nelson reached Leghorn 
— was fought the Battle of Marengo, in which the Austrians 
were totally defeated, the French army under Bonaparte re- 
maining victorious across their line of retreat to Mantua. 
The next day Melas signed a convention, abandoning Northern 
Italy, as far as the Mincio, to the French, to whom were 
given up all the fortified places, Genoa included. At mid- 
night of June 18, Nelson received an order from Keith to 
take all the ships at Leghorn to Spezia, for certain minor 
military purposes. Nelson sent the "Alexander" and a 
frigate, but remained himself in Leghorn with the "Fou- 
droyant," ready, he wrote the admiral, "to receive the queen 
and royal family, should such an event be necessary." Keith 
rejoined Avith a peremptory order that no ships-of-the-line 
should be used for such purpose ; the Queen, he said, had 
better get to Vienna as fast as she could, and not think of 
going back to Palermo. "If the French fleet gets the start 
of ours a day, Sicily cannot hold out even that one day." 
"Lord Keith," commented Nelson, "believes reports of the 
Brest fleet, which I give not the smallest credit to." "I 
own I do not believe the Brest fleet will return to sea," he 
told Keith ; " and if they do the Lord have mercy on tliem, 
1 The Paget Papers, vol. i. pp. 253, 257. 



RETURN TO ENGLAND, 1800 437 

for our fleet will not, I am sure." It was not the least of his 
conspicuous merits that he was blind to imaginative or ex- 
aggerated alarms. Keith saw too vividly all that might 
happen in consequence of recent reverses — much more than 
could happen. 

On the 24th of June the latter reached Leghorn in person. 
"I must go to Leghorn," he complained, "tQ land the fugi- 
tives, and to be bored by Lord Nelson for permission to take 
the Queen to Palermo, and princes and princesses to all parts 
of the globe." The Queen was in a panic, and besought him 
with tears to give her the " Foudroyant," but Keith was 
obdurate. " Mr. Wyndham ^ arrived here yesterday from 
Florence," wrote Lady Minto on the 6th of July to her sister. 
"He left the Queen of Xaples, Sir William and Lady Hamil- 
ton, and Nelson, at Leghorn. The Queen has given up all 
thoughts of coming here. She asked Lord Keith in her own 
proper person for the Foudroyant to take her back. He 
refused positively giving her such a ship. The Queen wept, 
concluding that royal tears were irresistible ; but he remained 
unmoved, and would grant nothing but a frigate to convoy 
her own frigates ^ to Trieste. He told her Lady Hamilton 
had had command of the fleet long enough. The Queen is 
very ill with a sort of convulsive fit, and Nelson is staying 
there to nurse her ; he does not intend going home till he 
has escorted her back to Palermo. His zeal for the public 
service seems entirely lost in his love and vanity, and they 
all sit and flatter each other all day long." It is only fair to 
say that there are indications, in the correspondence, of bad 
terms between the Hamiltons and Wyndham, who, therefore, 
was probably not a sympathetic observer. He had also before 
this written unpleasantly to Nelson, insinuating, apparently, 
a lack of attention to duty ; for the latter in a letter to Trou- 
bridge says, " I send you an extract of Mr. Wyndham's 
unhandsome mode of expressing himself towards me." 
Towards Keith her Majesty manifested her displeasure 
by omitting him in the public leave she took of all the 
officials. 

1 British minister to Tuscany. 

2 There were some Neapolitan frigates in Leghorn, but the royal family 
were never willing to trust them. 



438 TIIK LIFE OF NELSON 

The Queen finally resolved to continue her journey, but the 
victories of the French introduced into the political future 
an element of uncertainty, which caused her to delay a month 
in Leghorn, undecided whether to go by sea or land ; and 
Nelson had vowed not to forsake her. Keith, after some days, 
relented so far as to authorize the '' Alexander " taking the 
royal family to Trieste, but many of the party were averse 
to the sea voyage. There had been for some time living with 
the Harailtons a Miss Knight, an English lady already in 
middle life, whose journal gives the chief particulars that 
have been preserved of this period. " The Queen," she wrote, 
" wishes, if possible, to prosecute her journey. Lady Hamil- 
ton cannot bear the thought of going by sea; and therefore 
nothing but impracticability Avill prevent our going to 
Vienna." When it Avas at last fixed, after many vacilla- 
tions, that they should go to Ancona, and there take small 
Austrian vessels for Trieste, she exclaims, " to avoid the 
danger of being on board an English, man-of-war, where 
everything is commodious, and equally well arranged for 
defence and comfort! But the die is cast, and go we must." 
She mentions that Lord Nelson was well, and kept up his 
spirits amazingly, but Sir William appeared broken, dis- 
tressed, and harassed. 

On the 11th the travellers started for Florence, passing 
within two miles of the French advanced posts. At Ancona 
they embarked on board some Russian frigates, and in them 
reached Trieste safely on the 2d of August. Nelson was 
received with acclamations in all the towns of the Pope's 
states. A party in which were not only the queen of a reign- 
ing sovereign, but an English minister and his wife, was sure 
of receiving attention wherever it passed or stopped ; but in 
the present case it was the naval officer who carried off the 
lion's share of homage, so widely had his fame spread 
throughout the Continent. At Trieste, says Miss Knight, 
" he is followed by thousands when he goes out, and for the 
illumination which is to take place this evening, there are 
many Viva jS^e/son^s prepared." 

The same enthusiasm was shown at Vienna, where they 
arrived on the 21st or 22d of August. " You can have no 
notion of the anxiety and curiosity to see him," wrote Lady 



JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY 439 

Minto.^ "The door of liis house is always crowded with 
people, and even the street when his carriage is at the door ; 
and when lie went to the play he was applauded, a thing 
which rarely happens here." " Whenever he appeared in 
public," records Miss Knight, "a crowd was collected, and 
his portrait was hung up as a sign over many shops — even 
the milliners giving his name to particular dresses, but it did 
not appear to me that the English nation was at all popular." 
At a dinner at Prince Esterhazy's, where he spent some days, 
his health was drunk Avith a flourish of trumpets and firing 
of cannon. "I don't think him altered in the least," con- 
tinued Lady JNIinto, who remembered him from the old days 
in Corsica. " He has the same shock head and the same 
honest simple manners ; but he is devoted to Emma, he thinks 
her quite an angel, and talks of her as such to her face and 
behind her back, and she leads him about like a keeper with 
a bear. She must sit by him at dinner to cut his meat, and 
he carries her pocket-handkerchief. He is a gig from ribands, 
orders and stars, but he is just the same with us as ever he 
was ; " and she mentions his outspoken gratitude to Minto 
for the substantial service he had done him, and the guidance 
he had imparted to his political thought, — an acknowledg- 
ment he frequently renewed up to the last days of his 
life. 

Lady Minto's nephew, Lord Fitzharris, the son of the 
Earl of Malmesbury, was then in Vienna, apparently as an 
attache. He speaks in the same way of Nelson himself, but 
with less forbearance for Lady Hamilton; and he confirms 
the impression that Nelson at this time had lost interest in 
the service. Writing to his father, he says: "Nelson per- 
sonally is not changed ; open and honest, not the least vanity 
about him. He looks very well, but seems to be in no hurry 
to sail again. He told me he had no thoughts of serving 
again." " Lord Nelson and the Hamiltons dined here the 
other day ; it is really disgusting to see her with him." A 
few days later there was a ball at Prince Esterhazy's, where 
Fitzharris Avas present. " Lady Hamilton is without excep- 
tion the most coarse, ill-mannered, disagreeable Avoman I ever 
met Avith. The Princess had with great kindness got a number 
1 Life of Lord Minto, vol. iii. pp. ] 47-150. 



440 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of musicians, and the famous Ha^^dn, who is in their service, 
to play, knowing Lady Hamilton was fond of music. Instead 
of attending to them she sat down to the Faro table, played 
Nelson's cards for him, and won between £300 and £400. 
In short, I could not disguise my feeling, and joined in the 
general abuse of her." ^ The impression that Nelson would 
decline further service had been conveyed to other friends. 
Troubridge, who had meanwhile returned to England, wrote 
two months later to a young lieutenant who wished to get on 
board the admiral's next ship: "Lord Nelson is not yet 
arrived in England, and between ourselves I do not think he 
will serve again." 

Both Lady Minto and Fitzharris have recorded an account 
given them by Nelson, of his motives for action at the Battle 
of the Nile. " He speaks in the highest terms of all the 
captains he had with him off the coast of Egypt," writes the 
former, "adding that without knowing the men he had to trust 
to, he would not have hazarded the attack, that there was 
little room, but he was sure each would find a hole to creep 
in at." In place of this summary, her nephew gives words 
evidently quite fresh from the speaker's lips. " He says, 
'When I saw them, I could not help popping my head every 

now and then out of the Avindow, (although I had a d d 

toothache), and once as I was observing their position I 
heard two seamen quartered at a gun near me, talking, and 

one said to the other, ' D n them, look at them, there they 

are, Jack, if we don't beat them, they will beat us.' He says, 
'I knew what stuff I had under me, so I went into the attack 
with only a few ships, j)erfectly sure the others would follow 
me, although it was nearly dark and they might have had 
every excuse for not doing it, yet they all in the course of 
two hours found a hole to poke in at. If,' he added, ' I had 
taken a fleet of the same force from Spithead, I would sooner 
have thought of flying than attacking the French in their 
position, but I knew my captains, nor could I say which dis- 
tinguished himself most.' " Yet to Lady Minto he revealed 
the spirit he was of. " I told him I wished he had the com- 
mand of the Emperor's army. He said, •' I '11 tell you what. 

1 Malmesbury's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 24. 



JOURNF.Y THROUGH GERMANY 441 

If I had, I would only use one word — advance, and never say 
retreat! " 

After a month's stop at Vienna, during which Sir William 
Hamilton's health continued to cause anxiety, the party started 
north for Prague, Dresden, and Hamburg, following the course 
of the Elbe, On the 28th of September, Prague was reached, 
and there Kelson was met by arrangement by the Archduke 
Charles, the first in ability of the Austrian generals. The 
next day, September 29th, was Kelson's birthday, and the 
Archduke gave a grand entertainment in his honor. Continu- 
ing thence, the travellers on October 2d reached Dresden, to 
which Court the British minister was Hugh Elliot, the brother 
of Lord Minto. Here they came under the eye of Mrs. St. 
George, a young Irish widow, who by a second marriage became 
Mrs. Trench, and the mother of the late Archbishop of Dublin. 
Her description and comments have been considered severe, 
and even prejudiced; but they do not differ essentially from 
those of the Mintos and Fitzharris, except in saying that on 
one occasion, after dinner, Kelson took too much champagne, 
and showed the effects. However much to be deplored, such 
an occurrence is not so impossible as to invalidate the testimony 
of an eye-witness, even in a man of Kelson's well-established 
habitual abstemiousness, which indeed his health necessitated. 
That the relater's impression, if unfavorable in some respects, 
did not prejudice her in important matters, is shown by her 
comment upon the admiral's letters to Lady Hamilton, when 
published in 1814. " Though disgraceful to his principles of 
morality on one subject, they do not appear to me, as they do 
to most others, degrading to his understanding. They are 
pretty much what every man, deeply entangled, will express, 
when he supposes but one pair of fine eyes will read his letters ; 
and his sentiments on subjects unconnected with his fatal 
attachment are elevated — -looking to his hearth and his home 
for future happiness ; liberal, charitable, candid, affectionate, 
indifferent to the common objects of pursuit, and clear-sighted 
in his general view of politics and life." ^ 

Mrs. St. George's journal was not written for publication, 
and did not see the light till thirty-odd years after her death. 
" October 3d. Dined at Mr. Elliot's with only the Kelson 
1 Remains of Mis. Trench, p. 293. 



442 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

party. It is plain that Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but 
Lady Hamilton/ who is totally occupied by tlie same object. 
Lord Nelson is a little man, without any dignity ; who, I 
suppose, must resemble what Suwarrow was in his youth, as 
he is like all the pictures I have seen of that General. Lady 
Hamilton takes possession of him, and he is a willing captive, 
the most submissive and devoted I have ever seen. Sir 
William is old, infirm, all admiration of his wife, and never 
spoke to-day but to applaud her. Miss Cornelia Knight seems 
the decided flatterer of the two, and never opens her mouth 
but to show forth their praise ; and Mrs. Cadogan, Lady 
Hamilton's mother, is — what one might expect. After dinner 
we had several songs in honour of Lord Nelson, written by 
Miss. Knight, and sung by Lady Hamilton.'^ She puffs the 
incense full in his face; but he receives it with pleasure, and 
snuffs it up very cordially." Lord Minto, whose friendship 
for Nelson was of proof, wrote eighteen months after this to 
his wife : " She goes on crainming Nelson with trowelfuls of 
flattery, which he goes on taking as quietly as a child does 
pap." ^ 

"Lady Hamilton," wrote Mrs. St. George on succeeding 
days, "paid me those kinds of compliments which prove she 
thinks mere exterior alone of any consequence. . . . She loads 
me with all marks of friendship at first sight, which I always 
think more extraordinary than love of the same kind, pays me 
many compliments both when I am absent and present, and 
said many fine things about my accompanying her at sight. 
Still she does not gain upon me. . . . Mv. Elliot says, ' She 
will captivate the Prince of Wales, whose mind is as vulgar as 
her own, and play a great part in England,' " — a remark which 
showed shrewd judgment of character, as Nelson afterwards 
found to his intense disturbance. At Vienna the whole party 
had been presented at Court, but at Dresden the Electress 
refused to receive Lady Hamilton, on account of her former 
dissolute life. " She wished to go to Court," says Mrs. 
St. George, " on Avhich a pretext was made to avoid receiving 

1 Mrs. St. Gi'orge's description of Lady Hamilton lias already lieen given, 
ante, p. 325. 

2 Miss Knight mentions the same ceremony occuriing in Vienna. 

3 Lite of Lord Minto, vol. iii. pp. 242-243. 



ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND 443 

company last Sunday, and I understand there will be no Court 
while she stays." Nelson felt resentment at this exclusion, 
though powerless, of course, to express it ; but he declined an 
invitation to a private house which had not been extended to 
her. This incident naturally raised the question, what pros- 
pect there was of the lady being accepted at the Court of her 
own sovereign. " She talked to me a great deal of her doubts 
whether the Queen would receive her, adding, ' I care little 
about it. I had much rather she would settle half Sir 
William's pension on me,' " — -a remark which sliowed more 
philosophy than self-esteem. 

A week's visit in Dresden ended by the party taking boats 
for Hamburg, which they reached on the 21st of October, the 
journey being prolonged by stopping every night. They there 
remained ten days, of which no very noteworthy incidents 
have been recorded, although the general interest of all classes 
of people in the renowned warrior, of whom they had heard 
so much, continued to be manifested, sometimes in quaint and 
touching expression. On the 31st of October they embarked 
on board the mail-packet for England, and after a stormy 
passage landed at Yarmouth on the 6th of November, 1800. 
Two years and eight months had passed since Nelson sailed 
from Spithead, on a cruise destined to have so marked an 
influence on his professional reputation and private happiness. 
He was received on his landing with every evidence of popular 
enthusiasm, and of official respect from all authorities, civil 
and military. With the unvarying devout spirit which char- 
acterized him in all the greater events of his life, he asked 
that public service might be held, to enable him to give thanks 
in church for his safe return to his native country, and for the 
many blessings which he had experienced. 

Until quite recently the fact of Lady Nelson not being at 
Yarmouth to meet her husband has been thought to indicate 
coldness, if not displeasure, on her part. When the first 
edition of this book was published, the present writer certainly 
shared that impression, Avhich, whatever its origin, had a 
certain plausibility from tlie feelings of uneasiness in her, 
mentioned to Nelson by Davison,^ writing in December, 1798. 
Although his language was veiled, the implication even then 
^ Nicolas, vol. iii, p. 138 (note). 



444 THE LIFE OF ISTELSON 

was evident, and the scandalous reports afterwards current in 
England, concerning the life at Palermo, scarcely tended to 
soothe her anxieties. Nevertheless, however affected by the 
rumors that reached her ears, Lady Nelson remained mistress 
of herself and of her words, until the seeing of her eyes be- 
came more than she could bear. In 1898 were published for 
the first time some long-missing letters of Nelson to her ; parts 
of a correspondence for which the indefatigable Sir Harris 
Nicolas made " numerous inquiries without success." ^ From 
these it appears that he had written her he would go at once 
to London, when released from quarantine at Portsmouth, 
where he then expected to arrive ; " therefore I would not 
have you come to Portsmouth on my account." As the same 
reasons applied to any seaport, Lady Nelson observed her 
husband's wishes by awaiting him in London. Not only so, 
however, she carried complaisance so far as to ask Sir William 
and Lady Hamilton to Nelson's country home, Round Wood, 
near Ipswich. The letter conveying this invitation was among 
those awaiting him at Yarmouth, and in his reply of Novem- 
ber 6th he accepts in their name.^ Meantime, however. Lady 
Nelson and his father had gone to Loudon, so that their first 
meeting, after the famous Nile campaign, was there, at Nerot's 
Hotel, on Saturday, November 8, 1800. 

Thus, Lady Nelson's course, at the beginning of that brief 
and critical period which ended in their permanent separation, 
was, in forbearance and self-control, perfectly consistent with 
the tone of her letters to him during his stay at the Neapolitan 
Court. In these, the conditions at Palermo are ignored, and 
the correspondence is confined to the talk of the day, mingled 
with homely family news and simple unaffected expressions of 
affection to himself. " I was so glad to see any one who could 
give me such late accounts of my dear husband and my son, 
that it had such an effect on me that I could not hear or see 
and was obliged to call in our good father." One of her 
latest extant letters to him, prior to his arrival in England, 
dated March 29th, 1800, shows the same deference to his 
wishes, the "same affection, while withal quietly protesting her 

1 Nicolas, vol. i. preface, pp. xix, xx. 

2 The letters of Nelson here alluded to were published in "Literature," 
February- April, 1898. 



LETTER OF LADY NELSON 445 

own faithful striving to keep unimpaired the tie that united 
them. 

" I have this instant received a note from Admiral Young, 
who tells me if I can send him a letter for you in an hour, 
he will send it, therefore, I have only time to say I have at 
last had the pleasure of receiving two letters from you, dated 
January 20th and 25th. I rejoice exceedingly I did not 
follow the advice of the physician and our good father to 
change the climate, and I hope my health will be established 
by hot sea-bathing and the warmth of the summer. 

" I can with safety put ray hand on my heart and say it has 
been my study to please and make you happy, and I still 
flatter myself we shall meet before very long. I feel most 
sensibly all your kindnesses to my dear son, and I hope he will 
add much to our comfort. Our good father has been in good 
spirits ever since we heard from you ; indeed, my spirits were 
quite worn out, the time had been so long. I thank God for 
the preservation of my dear husband, and your recent success 
off Malta. The taking of the Genereux seems to give great 
spirits to all. God bless you, my dear husband, and grant us 
a happy meeting, and believe me," etc.^ 

The newly found letters prove that the length of time pass- 
ing without news was not due to his failure to write. So far 
as published, however, they are wanting in the traces of 
tenderness which marked their former relations, as noted in 
previous passages of this work. " My dearest Fanny " has 
become " my dear Fanny ; " "your most affectionate husband," 
"your affectionate." That such conjugal commonplaces as 
the earlier phrases no longer slip from his pen bears evidence, 
in the writer's opinion, to the stubborn integrity of the man 
scorning to deceive even himself by ordinary subterfuges. 

It is possible that, like many men, though it would not be in 
the least characteristic of himself, Nelson, during his journey 
home, simply put aside all consideration of the evil day when 
the two women would be in the same city, and trusted to the 
chapter of accidents to settle the terms on which they might 
live ; but he seems to have entertained an idea that he could 
maintain in London, with the acquiescence of his wife, the 
public relations towards Lady Hamilton tolerated by Neapoli- 

^ Alfred Morrison Collection of Autograph Letters (No. 473). 



446 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tan society. Miss Knight relates that, while at Leghorn, he 
said he hoped Lady Nelson and himself would be much with 
the Hamiltons, that they all would dine together very often, 
and that when the latter went to their musical parties, he and 
Lady Nelson would go to bed. In accordance with this pro- 
gramme, he took his two friends to dine with his wife and 
father, immediately upon his arrival in town. Miss Knight 
went to another hotel with Lady Hamilton's mother, and was 
that evening visited by Troubridge. He advised her to go 
and stop with a friend; and, although no reason is given, it 
is probable that he, who knew as much as any one of the past, 
saw that the position of residence with the Hamiltons would 
be socially untenable for a woman. Miss Knight accordingly 
went to live with Mrs. Nepean, the wife of the Secretary to 
the Admiralty. 

A few days later there was again a dinner at the house 
taken by the Hamiltons in Grosvenor Square. The Nelsons 
were there, as was Miss Knight. The next day several of 
the party attended the theatre, and Lady Nelson, it is said, 
fainted in the box, overcome by feeling, many thought, at 
her husband's marked attentions to Lady Hamilton. The 
latter being in her way a character as well known as Nelson 
himself, the affair became more than usually a matter of 
comment, especially as the scene now provided for London 
gossipers was a re-presentation of that so long enacted at 
Palermo, and notorious throughout Europe; but it received 
little toleration. "Most of my friends," wrote Miss Knight, 
'^ were urgent with me to drop the acquaintance, but, circum- 
stanced as I had been, I feared the charge of ingratitude, 
though greatly embarrassed as to what to do, for things became 
very unpleasant." Had it been a new development, it would 
have presented little difficulty; but having quietly lived many 
months in the minister's house under the same conditions, 
only in the more congenial atmosphere of Palermo, it was not 
easy now to join in the disapproval shown by much of London 
society. 

Lady Hamilton, of course, could not have any social accept- 
ance, but even towards Nelson himself, in all his glory, a 
marked coldness was shown in significant quarters. "The 
Lady of the Admiralty," wrote he to his friend Davison, 



ILL RECEIVED AT COURT 447 

" never had any just cause for being cool to me ; " an allusion 
probably to Lady Spencer, the wife of the First Lord. Cold- 
ness from her must have been the more marked, for after the 
Nile she had written him a wildly enthusiastic letter, recog- 
nizing with gratitude the distinction conferred npon her hus- 
band's administration by the lustre of that battle. " Either 
as a public or private man," he continued, "I wish nothing 
undone which I have done," — a remark entirely ambiguous 
and misleading as regards his actual relations to Lady Hamil- 
ton. He told Collingwood, at this same time, that he had not 
been well received by the King. " He gave me an account of 
his reception at Court," his old comrade writes, ''which was 
not very flattering, after having been the adoration of that of 
Naples. His Majesty merely asked him if he had recovered 
his health ; and then, without waiting for an answer, turned 

to General , and talked to him near half an hour in great 

good humour. It could not be' about his successes." This 
sliglit was not a revival of the old prejudice entertained by 
the King before the war, which had been wholly removed by 
the distinguished services Nelson had rendered afterwards. 
Eighteen months before this Davison had written to him : " I 
waited upon the King early last Sunday morning, and was 
alone with him a full hour, when much of the conversation 
was about you. It is impossible to express how warmly he 
spoke of you, and asked me a thousand questions about you. 
... I have been again at the Queen's house, and have given 
the King a copy of your last letter to me, giving an account 
of your health, which he read twice over, with great attention, 
and with apparent emotion of concern. His Majesty speaks 
of you with the tenderness of a father." Samuel Rogers has 
an incidental mention of the effect produced upon Nelson by 
the treatment now experienced. "I heard him once during 
dinner utter many bitter complaints (which Lady Hamilton 
vainly attempted to check) of the way he had been treated at 
Court that forenoon : the Queen had not condescended to take 
the slightest notice of him. In truth, Nelson was hated at 
Court; they were jealous of his fame." ^ People, however, 
are rarely jealous of those who are not rivals. 

The position which Nelson had proposed to himself to es- 
1 Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers. 



448 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tablish was of course impossible. The world was no more 
disposed to worry about any private immoralities of his than 
it did about those of other men, but it was not prepared to 
have them brandished in its face, and it would have none 
of Lady Hamilton, — nor would Lady Nelson. The general 
public opinion at the time receives, probably, accurate expres- 
sion from Sir William Hotham, a man then in London society. 
"His vanity, excusable as such a foible is in such a man, led 
him to unpardonable excesses, and blinded him to the advan- 
tages of being respected in society. . . . His conduct to Lady 
Nelson was the very extreme of unjustifiable weakness, for he 
should at least have attempted to conceal his infirmities, with- 
out publicly wounding the feelings of a woman 'whose own 
conduct he well knew was irreproachable." ^ On the other 
hand. Nelson could not forget the kindnesses he had accepted 
from Lady Hamilton, nor w'as he either able or willing to les- 
sen an intimacy which, unless diminished, left the scandal 
unabated. He was not able, for a man of his temperament 
could not recede before opposition, or slight a woman now 
compromised by his name ; and he was not willing, for he was 
madly in love. Being daily with her for seven months after 
leaving Palermo, there occurs a break in their correspondence ; 
but when it was resumed in the latter part of January, 1801, 
every particle of the reticence which a possible struggle with 
conscience had imposed disappears. He has accepted the new 
situation, cast aside all restraints, and his language at times 
falls little short of frenzy, while belying the respect for her 
which lie asserts continually and aggressively, as though against 
his convictions. 

The breach with Lady Nelson had in this short time become 
final. We have not the means — happily — to trace through 
its successive stages a rapid process of estrangement, of 
which Nelson said a few months afterwards : " Sooner than 
live the unhappy life I did when last I came to England, I 
would stay abroad forever." A highly colored account is 
given in Harrison's Life of Nelson, emanating apparently 
from Lady Hamilton, of the wretchedness the hero experi- 
enced from the temper of his wife ; while in the " Memoirs 

1 The author is iiiilebted to Prof. J. Knox Laugh ton for some extracts from 
Hotham's diary. 



THE BREACH WITH LADY NELSON 449 

of Lady Hamilton," published shortly after her death, another 
side of the case is brought forward, and Lady Nelson appears 
as rebutting with quiet dignity the reproaches of her husband 
for heartlessness, displayed in her unsympathetic attitude 
towards her rival, when suffering from indisposition. Into 
these recriminations it is needless to enter; those who wish 
can read for themselves in the works mentioned. A marked 
symptom of growing alienation was afforded by his leaving 
her on the 19th of December, in company with the Hamiltons, 
to spend the Christmas holidays at Fonthill, the seat of 
William Beckford. 

Daring this visit occurred a curious incident, which shows 
that the exultation unqiiestionably felt by Nelson in battle did 
not indicate insensibility to danger, or to its customary effects 
upon men, but resulted from the pleasurable predominance of 
other emotions, which accepted danger and the startling tokens 
of its presence as accompaniments, that only enhanced the 
majesty of the part he had to play, Beckford tells the story 
as follows: " I offered to show him what had been done by 
planting in the course of years. Nelson mounted by my side 
in a phaeton, drawn by four well-trained horses, which I 
drove. There was not the least danger, the horses being per- 
fectly under my command, long driven by myself. Singular 
to say, we had not gone far before I observed a peculiar 
anxiety in his countenance, and presently he said : ' This is 
too much for me, you must set me down.' I assured him 
that the horses were continually driven by me, and that they 
were perfectly under command. All would not do. He 
would descend, and I walked the vehicle back again." ^ Nel- 
son, of course, never claimed for himself the blind ignorance 
of fear which has been asserted of him ; on the contrary, 
the son of his old friend Locker tells us, " The bravest man 
(so we have heard Lord Nelson himself declare) feels an 
anxiety ' circa ijvcecordia ' as he enters the battle ; but he 
dreads disgrace yet more." ^ In battle, like a great actor in a 
great drama, he knew himself tlie master of an invisible con- 
course, whose homage he commanded, whose plaudits he 
craved, and whom, by the sight of deeds raised above the 

1 Beckford's Memoirs, London, 1859, vol. ii. p. 127. 

2 Locker's Greenwich Gallery, article " Torrington." 

29 



450 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

common ground of earth, lie drew to sympathy with heroism 
and self-devotion. There, too, he rejoiced in the noblest 
exercise of power, in the sensation of energies and faculties 
roused to full exertion, contending with mighty obstacles, 
and acting amid surroundings worthy of their grandeur ; 
like Massena, of whom it was said that he found his greatest 
self only when the balls flew thick about him, and things 
began to look their worst. 

After his return from Fonthill Lady Nelson and himself 
lived together again for a time in their London lodgings, 
in Arlington Street, and there, according to the story told 
forty-five years afterwards by Mr. William Haslewood, Nel- 
son's solicitor, the crisis of their troubles was reached. " In 
the winter of 1800, 1801, I was breakfasting with Lord and 
Lady Nelson, at their lodgings in Arlington Street, and a 
cheerful conversation was passing on indifferent subjects, 
when Lord Nelson spoke of something which had been done 
or said by ' dear Lady Hamilton ; ' upon which Lady Nel- 
son rose from her chair, and exclaimed, with much vehe- 
mence, 'I am sick of hearing of dear Lady Hamilton, and 
am resolved that you shall give up either her or me.' Lord 
Nelson, Avith perfect calmness, said : ' Take care, Fanny, 
what you say. I love jon sincerely ; but I cannot forget 
my obligations to Lady Hamilton, or speak of her other- 
wise than with affection and admiration.' Without one 
soothing word or gesture, but muttering something about 
her mind being made up, Lady Nelson left the room, and 
shortly after drove from the house. They never lived to- 
gether afterwards." Though committed to paper so many 
years later, the incident is just one of those that sticks to 
the memory, and probably occurred substantially as told. 
Lady Nelson's outbreak will probably be differently regarded 
by different persons ; it shows at least that she was living 
human flesh and blood. In later life, we are told by Hotham, 
who was in the habit of frequently seeing her, up to her 
death, in 1831, " she continually talked of him, and always 
attempted to palliate his conduct towards her, was warm and 
enthusiastic in her praises of his public achievements, and 
bowed down with dignified submission to the errors of his 
domestic life." 



THE BREACH WITH LADY NELSON 451 

The same testimony is borne by a lady, of whom Isicolas 
speaks as " the personal and intimate friend both of Lord 
and Lady Nelson, and the widow of one of his most distin- 
guished followers," but whose name he does not give.^ "I 
am aware of your intention not to touch upon this delicate 
subject : I only allude to it in order to assure you, from my 
personal knowledge, in a long and intimate acquaintance, that 
Lady Nelson's conduct was not only affectionate, wise, and 
prudent, but admirable, throughout her married life, and that 
she had not a single reproach to make herself. I say not this 
to cast unnecessary blame upon one whose memory I delight 
to honour, but only in justice to that truly good and amiable 
woman. ... If mildness, forbearance, and indulgence to the 
weaknesses of human nature could have availed, her fate 
would have been very different. No reproach ever passed her 
lips ; and when she parted from her Lord, on his hoisting 
his flag again, it was without the most distant suspicion 
that he meant it to be final, and that in this life they were 
never to meet again. I am desirous that you should know 
the worth of her who has so often been misrepresented, from 
the wish of many to cast the blame anywhere, but on him 
who was so deservedly dear to the Nation." 

After their separation Lady Nelson wrote to her husband 
on three different occasions ; the first, January 14, 1801, to 
thank him for the " generosity and tenderness " shown in the 
handsome allowance made to her ; the second, in the following 
summer, to express her " thankfulness and happiness " that 
his life had been spared afc Copenhagen ; the third, Decem- 
ber 18, 1801, begging, but in terms of dignified simplicity and 
affection, that the past might be forgotten and they live to- 
gether again. The last was returned to her unread. The 
latter years of her life were passed partly in Paris, where she 
lived with her son and his family. Her eldest grandchild, 
a girl, was eight or ten years old at the time of her death. 
She remembers the great sweetness of her grandmother's 
temper, and tells that she often saw her take from a casket a 
miniature of Nelson, look at it affectionately, kiss it, and then 
replace it gently ; after which she would turn to her and say, 
" When you are older, little Fan, you too may know what it is 
1 Nicolas, vol. ii. p. 353. 



452 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

to have a broken heart." This trifling incident, transpiring 
as it now does for the first time, after nearly seventy years, 
from the intimate privacies of family life, bears its own 
mute evidence that Lady Nelson neither reproached her 
husband, nor was towards him unforgiving,^ Nelson's early 
friend, the Duke of Clarence, who had given her away at 
the wedding, maintained his kindly relations Avith her to 
the end, and continued his interest to her descendants after 
his accession to the tlirone. 

Thus abruptly and sadly ended an attachment which, if 
never ardent, had for many years run undisturbed its ten- 
der course, and apparently had satisfied Nelson's heart, until 
the wave of a great passion swept him off his feet. "I re- 
member," writes ]\[iss Knight, " that, shortly after the Battle 
of the Nile, when my mother said to him that no doubt he 
considered the day of that victory as the happiest in his life, 
he answered, ' No ; the happiest was that on which I married 
Lady Nelson.' " On the 13th of January, 1801, Nelson took 
formal and final leave of her before hoisting his flag at Torbay. 
"I call God to witness," he then said, "there is nothing in 
you, or your conduct, that I wish otherwise." His alienation 
from her was soon shared by most of his family, except his 
father, who said to him frankh", tliat gratitude required he 
should spend part of his time with Lady Nelson. Two years 
before, he had written of her : " During the whole war [since 
1793] I have been with Lady Nelson, a good woman, and at- 
tentive? to an infirm old man," and they had continued to live 
together. The old man persuaded himself that there was 
nothing criminal in relations, the result of which, as regarded 
his son and daughter-in-law, he could. not but deplore ; but his 
letters to Lady Hamilton go little beyond the civility that was 
necessary to avoid giving offence to Nelson. Nelson's two 
married sisters, IMrs. Bolton and jNIrs. INIatcham, evidently 
shared their father's belief. They and their children main- 
tained with Lady Hamilton a friendly and even affectionate 
correspondence, long after Trafalgar, and until the death of 
the parties put an end to it. 

Immediately upon landing at Yarmouth, Nelson had written 

^ Tlic author is indebted for this anecdote to Mrs. F. H. B. Eceles, of 
Sherwell House, Plymouth, the daughter of the "little Fan" who told it. 



THE BIRTH OF HORATIA 453 

to the Admiralty that his health was perfectly restored, and 
that he wished to resume service immediately. He was soon 
designated to a command in the Channel fleet, under Earl St. 
Vincent, who had been commander-in-chief since the spring 
of 1800. The " San Josef," the three-decker boarded by him 
at Cape St. Vincent, was named to receive his flag, and on the 
17th of January it was hoisted on board her, at Plymouth, — 
blue at the fore, he having been promoted Vice-Ad miral of the 
l)lue on New Year's Day. An arrangement, however, had 
already been made, that, if the impending difficulties with 
Denmark threatened hostilities, he should accompany the fleet 
sent to the Baltic, as second to Sir Hyde Parker, selected for 
the chief command. While he was reporting to St. Vincent, 
on the 16th, at Torbay, preparatory to hoisting his flag, a let- 
ter from Parker informed him that the armament was decided 
upon. This he showed at once to St. Vincent, who acquiesced 
of course in the disappointment, but expressed a hope that he 
would soon rejoin him. 

By the first of February the " San Josef " had gone round 
to Torbay, the rendezvous of the Channel fleet under St. Vin- 
cent's command, and there it was that Xelson received the 
news of the birth, on the 29th or oOth of January, of the child 
Horatia, whose parentage for a long time gave rise to much 
discussion, and is even yet considered by some a matter of 
doubt. Fortunately, that question requires no investigation 
here; as regards the Life of Nelson, and his character as 
involved in this matter, the fact is beyond dispute that he 
believed himself the father, and Lady Hamilton the mother, 
of the girl, whose origin he sought to conceal by an elaborate 
though clumsy system of mystification. This might possibly 
have left the subject covered with clouds, though not greatly 
in doubt, had not Lady Hamilton, after wildly mmecessary 
lying on her own part, recklessly preserved her holdings of 
a correspondence which Nelson scrupulously destroyed, and 
enjoined her to destroy. 

The sedulous care on his side to conceal the nature of their 
relations, and the reckless disregard of his wishes shown by 
her, is singularly illustrated by the method he took to bring 
the child into her charge, from that of the nurse to whom it 
had been intrusted. When it was somewhat over three years 



454 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

old, oil the 13tli of August, 1804, he wrote Lady Hamilton a 
letter, evidently to be used, where necessary, to account for 
its presence under his roof. " I am now going to state a thing 
to you and to request your kind assistance, which, from my 
dear Emma's goodness of heart, I am sure of her acquiescence 
in. Before we left Italy I told you of the extraordinary cir- 
cumstance of a child being left to my care and protection. 
On your first coming to England I presented you the child, 
dear Horatia. You became, to my comfort, attached to 
it, so did Sir William, thinking her the finest child he had 
ever seen. She is become of tliat age when it is necessary to 
remove her from a mere nurse and to think of educating her. 
... I sliall tell you, my dear Emma, more of this matter 
when I come to England, but I am now anxious for the child's 
being placed under your protecting wing." With this letter 
(or, possibly, with another written the same day) was found 
an enclosure, undated and unsigned, but in Nelson's hand- 
writing. "My beloved, how I feel for your situation and that 
of our dear Horatia, our dear child . . ." ^ 

The indifference to incidental consequences which was 
shown by Nelson, when once he had decided upon a course 
of action, was part of his natural, as well as of his more dis- 
tinctively military character ; but in this connection with 
Lady Hamilton he must have felt intuitively that not only 
her reputation was involved, but his own also. The hospital- 
ity, the attention, the friendship, extended to him at Naples 
and Palermo, were not from Lady Hamilton only but from her 
husband also, in whose house he lived, and who to the end, so 
far as the records show, professed for him unbounded esteem 
and confidence. This confidence had been betrayed, and the 
strongest line of argument formerly advanced, by those who 
disputed Lady Hamilton's being the mother of the child, has 
become now Nelson's severest condemnation. 

"However great was Nelson's infatuation," says Sir Har- 
ris Nicolas, " his nice sense of honour, his feelings of pro- 
priety, and his love of truth, were unquestionable. Hence, 
though during a long separation from his wife on the public 
service in the Mediterranean, he so far yielded to temptation 
as to become the father of a child, it is nevertheless difficult to 
1 Morrison, The Hamilton and Nelson Papers, Nos. 777, 778, 779. 



HIS RELATIONS WITH LADY HAMILTON 455 

believe that be sbould for years bave had a criminal inter- 
course with the wife of a man of bis own rank, whom be 
considered as his dearest friend, who placed the greatest 
confidence in his honour and virtue, and in whose house he 
was living. Still more difficult is it to believe, even if this 
bad been the case, that he should not only bave permitted 
every one of his relations, male and female, — his wife, his 
father, bis brothers, his brothers-in-law, his two sisters, and 
all their daughters, — to visit and correspond with her, but 
even bave allowed three of his nieces to live for a consider- 
able time with her; have ostentatiously and frequently writ- 
ten and spoken of her ' virtuous and religious ' character, — 
holding her up as an example to his family ; bave appointed 
her the sole guardian of bis child ; have avowedly intended to 
make her bis wife ; have acted upon every occasion as if the 
purity 'of their intimacy was altogether free from suspicion; 
and in the last written act of his life have solemnly called 
upon his country to reward and support her. An honourable 
and conscientious man rarely acts thus towards his mistress. 
. . . Moreover, Nelson's most intimate friends, including the 
Earl of St. Vincent, who called them ' a pair of sentimental 
fools,' Dr. Scott, his Chaplain, and Mr. Haslewood, were of 
the same opinion; and Soutbey says, 'there is no reason to 
believe that this most unfortunate attachment was criminal.' " 
This complicated and difficult path of deception had to be 
trod, because the offence was not one of common error, readily 
pardoned if discovered, but because the man betrayed, what- 
ever his faults otherwise, had shown both the culprits un- 
bounded confidence and kindness, and upon the woman, at 
least, bad been led by bis love to confer a benefit which 
neither sbould have forgotten. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Expedition to the Baltic and Battle of Copenhagen. — -Nelson 
iiETURNS TO England. 

Eebkuaky-June, 1801. Age, 42. 

THE trouble between Great Britain and Denmark, which 
now called Nelson again to the front, leading to the most 
difficult of his undertakings, and, consequently, to the most 
distinguished of his achievements, arose about the maritime 
rights of neutrals and belligerents. The contention was not 
new. In 1780 the Baltic States, Bussia, Sweden, and Den- 
mark, being neutrals in the war then raging, had combined to 
assert, by arms, if necessary, certain claims advanced by them 
to immunity from practices which international law had 
hitherto sanctioned, or concerning which it had spoken am- 
biguously. These claims Great Britain had rejected, as con- 
trary to her rights and interests ; but, being then greatly 
outnumbered, she temporized until the end of the war, which 
left her in possession of the principles at stake, although she 
had forborne to enforce them offensively. The coalition of the 
Baltic States, at that time, received the name of the Armed 
Neutrality. 

Erom 1793 to 1800 Sweden and Denmark had again suc- 
ceeded in maintaining their neutrality, and, as most other 
maritime states were at war, their freedom of navigation had 
thrown into their hands a large carrying trade. But, while 
their profit was thus great, it would be much greater, if their 
ships could be saved the interruptions to their voyages arising 
from the right of belligerents to stop, to search, and, if neces- 
sary, to send into port, a vessel on board which were found 
enemy's goods, or articles considered "contraband of war." 
The uncertainty hanging round the definitions of the latter 
phrase greatly increased the annoyance to neutrals; and seri- 



TROUBLES WITH DENMARK 457 

ous disputes existed on certain points, as, for example, whether 
materials for ship-building, going to an enemy's port, were 
liable to capture. Great Britain maintained that they were, 
the neutrals that they were not ; and, as the Baltic was one of 
the chief regions from which such supplies came, a principal 
line of trade for the Northern States was much curtailed. 

Sweden and Denmark were too weak to support their con- 
tention against the sea-power of Great Britain. Where there 
is lack of force, there will always be found the tendency to 
resort to evasion to accomplish an end ; and Denmark, in 
1799, endeavored to secure for her merchant ships immunity 
from search by belligerent cruisers — which International Law 
has always conceded, and still concedes, to be within the 
rights of a belligerent — by sending them on their voyages in 
large convoys, protected by ships of war. It was claimed that 
the statement of the senior naval officer, that there were not 
in the convoy any articles subject to capture, was sufficient; 
and that the belligerent would in that case have no right to 
search. Great Britain replied that the right of search rested 
upon long-standing common consent, and precedent, and that 
it could not be taken from her against her will by any process 
instituted by another state. The Danish ships of war being 
instructed to use force against search, two hostile collisions 
followed, in one of which several men were killed and wounded, 
and the Danish frigate was taken into a British port — though 
afterwards released. 

The latter of these conflicts occurred in July, 1800. Great 
Britain then sent an ambassador to Denmark, backing him 
with a fleet of nine ships of-the-line, with bomb-vessels ; and 
at the end of August a convention was signed, by which the 
general subject was referred to future discussion, but Denmark 
agreed for the time to discontinue her convoys. The impor- 
tance of the subject to Great Britain was twofold. First, by 
having the right to seize enemy's property in neutral ships, 
she suppressed a great part of the commerce which France 
could carry on, thus crippling her financially ; and, second, by 
capturing articles of ship-building as contraband of war, she 
kept from the French materials essential to the maintenance 
of their navy, which their own country did not produce. 
British statesmen of all parties maintained that in these 



458 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

contentions there was at stake, not an empty and offensive 
privilege, but a right vital to self-defence, to the effective 
maintenance of which the power to search Avas fundamentally 
necessary. 

In 1800 the Czar Paul I. had become bitterly hostile to 
Austria and Great Britain. This feeling had its origin in the 
disasters of the campaign of 1799, and was brought to a climax 
by the refusal of Great Britain to yield Malta to him, as Grand 
Master of the Order, after its capture from the French in Sep- 
tember, 1800. It had been the full purpose of the British 
ministry to surrender it, and Nelson, much to his distaste, had 
received specific orders to that effect ; but, besides the fact that 
the Russians had contributed nothing directly to the reduction 
of the island, the attitude of the Czar had become so doubtful, 
that common prudence forbade putting into the hands of a 
yjrobable future enemy the prize so hardly won from a present 
foe. Paul had already announced his intention of reviving the 
Armed Neutrality of 1780 ; and Avhen, in Kovember, he learned 
the fall of Malta, he seized three hundred British vessels lying 
in Russian ports, marched their crews into the interior, and at 
the same time placed seals on all British warehoused prop- 
erty, — a measure intended to support his demand for the 
restitution of the island to him. 

On the 16th of December a treaty was signed at St. Peters- 
burg by Russia and Sweden, to which Denmark and Prussia 
promptly adhered, renewing the Armed Neutrality, for the 
support of their various claims. The consenting states bound 
themselves to maintain their demands by force, if necessary ; 
but no declaration of war was issued. Great Britain, in ac- 
cepting the challenge, equally abstained from acts which 
would constitute a state of war ; biit she armed at once to 
shatter the coalition, before it attained coherence in aught 
but words. From first to last, until the Armed Neutrality 
again dissolved, though there Avas hard fighting, there was not 
formal war. 

The relation of these occurrences to the life of Nelson will 
not be fully understood, unless the general state of Europe 
be recalled, and the master hand of Bonaparte be recognized, 
underlying and controlling previous changes and present con- 
ditions. After the Battle of the Nile, and up to a year before 



THE ARMED NEUTRALITY OF 1800 459 

this, Austria, Russia, and Great Britain liad been united in 
arms against France ; and, in addition to the undisputed con- 
trol of the sea by the British Kavy, they were pressing in 
overpowering numbers upon her eastern frontiers, from the 
North Sea to the jNFediterranean. Blunders of their own had 
arrested the full tide of success, and the return of Bonaparte 
from Egypt reversed the current. Russia withdrew in anger, 
and Austria, beaten upon field after field, in Italy and Ger- 
many, by Bonaparte and Moreau, had finally consented to 
peace after the disastrous defeat of Hohenlinden, on the 3d 
of December, 1800. Great Britain was left without an ally ; 
and Russia was added to the list of her active enemies by 
the skilful political manipulation of Bonaparte, who played 
upon the impulses and weaknesses of the half-mad Czai*, 
releasing with distinguished marks of respect all Russian 
prisoners, and offering the vain gift of Malta, the French 
garrison of which was even then clutched by the throat in 
the iron grip of the British sea-power. 

The renewal of the Armed Neutrality was thus, primarily, 
the work of Bonaparte. He alone had the keenness to see 
all the possibilities in favor of France that were to be found 
in the immense combination, and he alone possessed the skill 
and the power to touch the various chords, whose concert 
was necessary to its harmonious action. Although it was 
true, as Nelson said, that Paul was the trunk of the many- 
limbed tree, it was yet more true that Bonaparte's deft cajol- 
ing of the Czar, and the inducements astutely suggested by 
him to Prussia, were the vitalizing forces which animated 
the two principal parties in the coalition, in whose wake the 
weaker states were dragged. Through the former he hoped 
to effect a combination of the Baltic navies against the 
British ; through the latter he looked to exclude Great 
Britain from her important commerce with the Continent, 
which was carried on mainly by the ports of Prussia, or by 
those of North Germany, which she could control. Thus, 
by the concerted and simultaneous action of direct weight of 
arms on the one hand, and of commercial embarrassment on 
the other, Bonaparte hoped to overbear the power of his 
chief enemy ; and here, as on other occasions, both before 
and after, Nelson was at once the quickening spirit of the 



460 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

enterprise, and the direct agent of the blow, which brought 
down his plans, in ruins, about his ears. 

Relaxing none of her efforts in other quarters of the world, 
Great Britain drew together, to confront the new danger, 
everything in the home waters that could float, till she had 
gathered a fleet of twenty sail-of-the-line, with smaller cruisers 
in due proportion. '' Under the present impending storm 
from the north of Europe," wrote St. Vincent, from his perch 
above the waters of Torbay, "to enable us to meet such a 
host of foes, no ship under my command must hav^e anything 
done to her at Plymouth or Portsmouth that can be done at 
this anchorage." "We are now arrived at that period," wrote 
Nelson, " what we have often heard of, but must now execute 
— that of fighting for our dear Country; and I trust that, al- 
•^ though we may not be able to subdue our host of enemies, yet 
we may make them ashamed of themselves, and prove that they 
cannot injure us." "I have only to say," he wrote to Earl 
Spencer, who must have rejoiced to see the old spirit flaming 
again in undiminished vigor, " what you, my dear Lord, are 
fully satisfied of, that the service of my King and Country 
is the object nearest my heart; and that a first-rate, or sloop 
of war, is a matter of perfect indifference to your most faith- 
ful and obliged Nelson." 

The " San Josef " being considered too heavy a ship for 
the Baltic service. Nelson's flag was shifted on the 12th of 
February to the " St. George," a three-decker of lighter draft. 
Hardy accompanied him as captain, and on the 17th Nelson 
received orders to place himself under the command of Sir 
Hyde Parker. A few days afterwards, the " St. George " 
went to Spithead, where she received on board six hundred 
troops, under the command of Colonel William Stewart, to 
whom we owe the fullest and most interesting account of the 
expedition in general, and of the Battle of Copenhagen in 
particular, that has been transmitted by an eye-witness. The 
ship sailed again on the 2d of March for Yarmouth, where 
she arrived on the 6th. The next day Nelson went to call 
on the commander-in-chief, who was living on shore, his flag 
flying on board a vessel in the roads. " I remember," says 
Colonel Stewart, "that Lord Nelson regretted Sir Hyde being 
on shore. We breakfasted that morning as usual, soon after 



THE BALTIC EXPEDITION 461 

six o'clock, for we were always up before daylight. "We went 
on shore, so as to be at Sir H3'de's door at eight o'clock, Lord 
Nelson choosing to be amusingly exact to that hour, Avhich he 
considered as a very late one for business." 

At this, his first official visit, the commander-in-chief, it 
is said, scarcely noticed him, and Nelson, as will be seen, 
complained freely of the treatment he at the beginning 
received. Parker was now verging on old age, but he had 
recently married a young wife, who was in Yarmouth with 
him, and the two had arranged to give a great ball on the 
13th of March ; altogether a bad combination for a military 
undertaking. Nelson, who was in haste to get away, — chiefly 
because of his sound martial instinct that this was peculiarly 
a case for celerity, but partly, also, because of anxiety to get 
the thing over and done, and to return to his home comforts, 
— appears to have represented matters unofficially to the 
Admiralty, a step for which his personal intimacy with St. 
Vincent and Troubridge afforded easy opportunity ; and an 
express quickly arrived, ordering the fleet to sea at once.^ 
" The signal is made to prepare to unmoor at twelve o'clock," 
wrote Nelson to Troubridge on the 11th. "Now we can have 
no desire for staying, for her ladyship is gone, and the Ball 
for Friday knocked up by yours and the Earl's unpoliteness, 
to send gentlemen to sea instead of dancing with white gloves, 
I will only say," he continues, " as yet I know not that we 
are even going to the Baltic, except from the newspapers, 
and at sea I cannot go out of my ship but with serious incon- 
venience," — owing to the loss of his arm. What was not 
told him before starting, therefore, could not be told by mouth 
till after arrival. 

It will be remembered that Sir Hyde Parker had succeeded 
Hotham in the chief command of the Mediterranean, for a 
brief but critical month in 1795,^ and that Nelson had then 
complained of his action as regards the general conduct of 
the campaign, and specifically for having reduced to the point 
of inefficiency the small squadron under Nelson's own direc- 
tion, upon Avhlch the most important issues hinged. Possibly 
Parker had heard this, possibly the notorious disregard of 

1 Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxvii. p. 445. 

2 AiUe, pp. 170-172. 



462 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Keith's orders a few months before influenced him to keep his 
renowned, but independent, subordinate at a distance in ofli- 
cial matters. It was not well advised ; though probably the 
great blunderers were- the Admiralty, in sending as second 
a man who had shown himself so exceptionally and uniquely 
capable of supreme command, and so apt to make trouble for 
mediocre superiors. If Lord St. Vincent's surmise was cor- 
rect, Parker, who was a very respectable of&cer, had been 
chosen for his present place because in possession of all the 
information acquired during the last preparation for a Russian 
war; while Kelson fancied that St. Vincent himself, as com- 
mander of the Channel fleet, had recommended him, in order 
to get rid of a second in command who did not carry out satis- 
factorily the methods of his superior. If that were so, the 
mistake recoiled upon his own head ; for, while the appoint- 
ment was made by Earl Spencer, St. Vincent succeeded him as 
First Lord before the expedition sailed, and the old seaman 
would much have preferred to see Nelson at the helm. He 
was quite sure of the latter, he said, and should have been in 
no apprehension if he had been of rank to take the chief com- 
mand ; but he could not feel so sure about Sir Hyde, as he had 
never been tried. Whatever the truth, Lady Malmesbury's 
comment after the event Avas indisputable : " I feel very sorry 
for Sir Hyde; but no wise man would ever have gone with 
Kelson, or over him, as he was sure to be in the background 
in every case." 

" I declare solemnly," wrote Nelson to Davison four days 
after reporting, " that I do not know " — officially, of course — 
" that I am going to the Baltic, and much worse than that I 
could tell you. Sir Hyde is on board sulk^^ Stewart tells 
me, his treatment of me is now noticed. Dickson came on 
board to-day to say all were scandalized at his gross neglect. 
Burn this letter ; then it can never appear, and you can speak 
as if your knowledge came from another quarter." That day 
the orders came from the Admiralty to go to sea ; and the 
next, March 12, the ships then present sailed, — fifteen ships- 
of-the-line and two fifties, besides frigates, sloops of war, 
brigs, cutters, fire-ships, and seven bomb- vessels, — for, if the 
Danes Avere obstinate, Copenhagen was to be bombarded. On 
the 16th of March Kelson wrote both to Davison and Ladj 



THE BALTIC EXPEDITION 463 



Hamilton that he as yet knew nothing, except by common 
report. '•' Sir Hyde has not told me officially a thing. I am 
sorry enough to be sent on such an expedition, but nothing 
can, I trust, degrade, do what they will.^' His mind was in a 
condition to see the worst motives in what befell him. " I 
know, I see, that I am not to be supported in the way I ought, 
but the St. George is beginning to prepare this day for battle, 
and she shall be true to herself. . . . Captain Murray sees, as 
do every one, what is meant to disgrace me, but that is impos- 
sible. Even the Captain of the Fleet [Parker's Chief of Staff] 
sent me word that it was not his doing, for that Sir Hyde 
Parker had run his pen through all that could do me credit, 
or give me support ; but never mind, Nelson will be first if he 
lives, and you shall partake of all his glory. So it shall be 
my study to distinguish myself, that your lieart shall leap for 
joy when my name is mentioned." ^ 

Enough reached his ears to draw forth unqualified expres- 
sions of dissent from the plans proposed, and equally clear 
statements as to what should be done, — all stamped unmis- 
takably with the " Nelson touch," to use an apt phrase of his 
own. "Reports say," he tells Lady Hamilton, "we are to 
anchor before we get to Cronenburg Castle, that our minister 
at Copenhagen may negotiate. What nonsense ! How much 
better could we negotiate was our fleet off Copenhagen, and the 
Danish minister would seriously reflect how he brought the 
fire of England on his Master's fleet and capital ; but to keep 
us out of sight is to seduce Denmark into a war. . . . H they 
are the plans of IMinisters, they are weak in the extreme, and 
very different to what I understood from Mr. Pitt.^ If they 
originate with Sir Hyde, it makes him, in my mind, as — but 
never mind, your Nelson's plans are bold and decisive — all 
on the great scale. I hate your pen and ink men ; a fleet of 
British ships of war are the best negotiators in Europe." 
While the greatness and decision of his character remain un- 
impaired, perhaps even heightened, it will be noticed that 
self-reliance, never in any man more justified, has tended to 
degenerate into boastfulness, and restlessness under displeas- 
ing orders to become suspicion of the motives prompting them. 

1 Nelson to Lady Hamilton. Pettigrew, vol. 1. pp. 442-444. 

2 Pitt had resigned from office since then. 



4G4 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

" They all hate me and treat me ill," he saj^s, speaking of 
Spencer's and St. Vincent's administrations. " I cannot, 
my dear friend, recall to mind any one real act of kindness, 
but all of unkindness." It must, of course, be remembered 
that, while such expressions portray faithfully the working of 
the inner spirit, and serve, by contrast, to measure the Nelson 
of 1801 against the Nelson of 1796, they were addressed to 
the most intimate of friends, and do not necessarily imply a 
corresponding bearing before the eyes of the world. 

An amusing story is told of a shrewd stratagem resorted to 
by Nelson, on the passage to the Baltic, to thaw the barrier of 
frigidity in his superior, which not only was unpleasant to him 
personally, as well as injurious to the interests of the state, 
but threatened also to prevent his due share in the planning 
and execution of the enterprise in hand, thus diminishing the 
glory he ever coveted. The narrator, Lieutenant Layman, was 
serving on board the '' St. George," and happened to mention, 
in Nelson's presence, that some years before he had seen 
caught a very fine turbot on the Dogger Bank, over which the 
fleet must pass on its way. 

" This being a mere casual remark, nothing more would have 
been thought of it, had not Nelson, after showing great anxiety 
in his inquiries when they should be on the Dogger Bank, sig- 
nificantly said to Mr. Layman, ' Do you think we could catch 
a turbot ? ' After a try or two, a small turbot was caught. 
Lord Nelson appeared delighted, and called out, ' Send it to 
Sir Hyde.' Something being said about the risk of sending a 
boat, from the great sea, lowering weather, and its being dark, 
his Lordship said with much meaning, ' I know the Chief is 
fond of good living, and he shall have the turbot.' That his 
Lordship was right appeared by the result, as the boat re- 
turned with a note of compliment and thanks from Parker. 
The turbot having opened a communication, the effect was 
Avonderful. At Merton Mr. Layman told Lord Nelson that a 
man eminent in the naval profession had said to him, ' Do tell 
me how Parker came to take the laurel from his own brow, and 
place it on Nelson's ? ' ' What did you say ? ' asked Nelson. 
' That it was not a gift,' replied Layman, ' as your Lordship 
had gained the victory by a turbot.' ' A turbot ! ' ' Yes, my 
lord, I well recollect your great desire to catch a turbot, and 



THE BALTIC EXPEDITION 405 

your astonishing many, by insisting upon its being immediately 
sent to Sir Hyde, who condescended to return a civil note ; i 
withou-t which opening your Lordship would not have been ; 
consulted in the Cattegat, and without such intercourse your 
Lordship would not have got the detached squadron ; without 
which there would not have been any engagement, and conse- 
quently no victory.' Lord Nelson smilingly said, <You are 
right.' " 1 

On the 19th of March the fleet was collected off the northern 
point of Denmark, known as the Skaw. Prom there the broad 
channel, called the Kattegat, extends southward, between 
Sweden and the northern part of the Danish peninsula, until 
it reaches the large Island of Zealand, upon the eastern shore 
of which Copenhagen lies. The two principal entrances into 
the Baltic are on either side of Zealand. The eastern one, 
separating it from Sweden, is called the Sound, that to the 
west is known as the Great Belt; each, from the military 
point of view, possessed its particular advantages and par- 
ticular drawbacks. " We are slow in our motions as ever," 
wrote Nelson, whose impatient and decided character would 
have used the fair wind that was blowing to enter the 
Kattegat, and to proceed at once to Copenhagen, "but I 
hope all for the best. I have not yet seen Sir Hyde, but I 
purpose going this morning ; for no attention shall be want- 
ing on my part." The next day he reports the result of the 
interview to his friend Davison : " I staid an hour, and 
ground out something, but there was not that degree of /> 
openness which I should have shown to my second in com- v 
mand." The fleet advanced deliberately, a frigate being 
sent ahead to land the British envoy, Mr. Vansittart, whose 
instructions were that only forty -eight hours were to be al- 
lowed the Danes to accept the demands of Great Britain, 
and to withdraw from the coalition. The slowness here, 
like every other delay, chafed Nelson, whose wish from the 
beginning was to proceed at the utmost speed, not merely 
from the Skaw, but from England, with whatever ships could 
be collected ; for he reasoned perfectly accurately upon the 
safe general principle that delay favors the defence more 
than the offence. " I only now long to be gone," he wrote 

1 Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxvii. p. 446. 
30 



466 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



before leaving Yarmouth: '' time is precious, aud every hour 
makes more resistance; strike quick, and home." It was 
particularly true in this case, for Denmark, long used to 
peace, had not thought war possible, and every day was 
precious to her in restoring and increasing the neglected pro- 
tection of Copenhagen. 

On the evening of March 20 the fleet anchored in the 
Kattegat, eighteen miles from Cronenburg Castle and the 
town of Elsinore, at which the Sound narrows to three 
miles. Both shores being hostile, Parker would not attempt 
to force the passage until he learned the result of the British 
mission to Copenhagen ; meanwhile the Danes were working 
busily at the blockships and batteries of the city. On the 
23d Mr. Vansittart returned with the terms rejected ; and he 
bi-ought, also, alarming reports of the state of the batteries 
at Elsinore and Copenhagen, which were much stronger than 
the previous information of the British Cabinet had shown, 
proving, as Nelson urged, that each day's delay increased the 
enemy's relative power. Sir Hyde called a council. "Now 
we are sure of fighting," wrote Nelson to Lady Hamilton. 
" I am sent for. When it was a joke I was kept in the back- 
ground ; to-morrow will I hope be a proud day for England 
— to have it so, no exertion shall be wanting from your 
most attached and affectionate friend," 

He was accompanied to Parker's flagship by Lieutenant 
Layman, who went in the boat to steer for him. " On board 
the London," according to Layman, " the heads appeared very 
gloomy. Mr. Vansittart, who arrived at the same moment 
Nelson did, said that if the fleet proceeded to attack, it 
would be beaten, and the attempt was in danger of being 
relinquished. The Captain of the Fleet said to Layman that 
the Danes \yfire too strong to attack, and a torpor verging to 
despondency prevailed in the councils. While others were 
' dismayed, however, Lord Nelson questioned those just arrived 
from Copenhagen not only as to the force, but as to the posi- 
tion of the enemy. Such interrogatories he called 'bringing 
people to the post.' Having learned that the great strength 
of the enemy was at the head of the line, supported by the 
. Crown Battery, his Lordship emphatically observed that to 
begin the attack there would be like taking a bull by the 



THE BALTIC EXPEDITION 467 

horns, and he therefore suggested the attempt by the tail." ^ 
In order to avoid the formidable works at Cronenburg, and 
yet come up in rear of Copenhagen, according to this proposi- 
tion of Kelson's, it was proposed in the council to go by the 
Great Belt. That passage is more intricate, and therefore, 
from the pilot's point of view, more hazardous than the 
Sound. Nelson was not much deterred by the alarming re- 
ports. " Go by the Sound, or by the Belt, or anyhow," he 
said, " only lose not an hour." 

The minutes of the council have not been transmitted, but 
it is evident from Nelson's own letter of the following day, 
soon to be quoted in full, and also from one written to him 
by Mr. Vansittart, after the latter reached London, that he 
urged upon Parker, and prevailed with him, to throw aside 
the instructions of the Government, under the changed condi- 
tions, and to adopt boldly the plan which, according to his 
present knowledge, should seem most certain to crush Den- 
mark at once. After that, he would shatter the coalition by 
immediate steps against Russia. Only such a bold spirit, 
with the prestige of a Nelson, can dominate a council of war, 
or extort decisive action from a commander-in-chief who calls 
one. " The difficulty," wrote Nelson some time afterwards, 
*' was to get our commander-in-chief to either go past Cronen- 
burg or through the Belt [that is, by any passage], because, 
what Sir Hyde thought best, and what I believe was settled 
before I came on board the London, was to stay in the 
Cattegat, and there wait the time when the whole naval 
force of the Baltic might choose to come out and fight — a 
measure, in my opinion, disgraceful to our Country. I wanted 
to get at an enemy as soon as possible to strike a home stx-oke, 
and Paul was the enemy most vulnerable, and of the greatest 
consequence for us to humble." So pressing, daring, and out- 
spoken were his counsels, so freely did he now, as at former 
times, advocate setting aside the orders of distant superiors, 
that he thought advisable to ask Vansittart, who was to sail 
immediately for England, to explain to the Admiralty all the 
conditions and reasons, which Vansittart did. St. Vincent, as 
Pirst Lord, gave unhesitating approval to what his former 
lieutenant had advised. 

1 Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxvii., art. " Layman." 



468 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelsou's uuderstauding of the situation was, iu truth, acute, 
profound, and decisive. In the northern combination against 
Great Britain, Paul was the trunk, Denmark and Sweden 
the branches. Could he get at the trunk and liew it down, 
the branches fell with it ; but should time and strength first 
be spent lopping off the branches, the trunk would remain, 
and "my power must be weaker when its greatest strength 
is required." As things then were, the Russian Navy was 
divided, part being in Cronstadt, and a large fraction, twelve 
ships-of-the-line, in Revel, an advanced and exposed port, 
where it was detained fettered by the winter's ice. Get at 
that and smite it, and the Russian Navy is disabled ; all falls 
together. This would be his own course, if independent. As 
Parker, however, was obstinately resolved not to leave Denmark 
hostile in his rear. Nelson had to bend to the will of his 
superior. He did so, without forsaking his own purpose. 
As in the diverse objects of his care in the Mediterranean, 
where he could not compel, he sought diligently to compass 
his object, by persuasion, by clear and full explanation of his 
lofty views, by stirring appeals to duty and opportunity, 
striving to impart to another his own insight, and to arouse 
in him his own single-minded and dauntless activity. Con- 
ceding, perforce, that Denmark was not to be left hostile in 
the rear, • — although he indicates that this object might be at- 
tained by masking her power with a detachment, while the 
main effort was immediately directed against Revel, — his 
suggestions to Parker for reducing Denmark speedily are 
dominated by the same conception. Strategic and tactical 
considerations unite to dictate, that the fleet, whether it go 
by the Sound or the Belt, must quickly reach and hold a 
position beyond — and therefore in the rear of — Copenhagen. 
There it interposed between Denmark and Russia; from 
there it approached Copenhagen where its defences were 
weakest. This comprehensive exposition went, with Nelson's 
customary directness, straight to the root of the matter. 

Next day, after returning to his own shijD, Nelson drew up 
the following paper, which is at once so characteristic of his 
temperament and genius, and so lucid and masterly a review 
of the political and military conditions, that, contrary to the 
author's usual practice, it is given entire. Being devoted to 









Nautical Mile» 



ifm l,t^ uri'eUon.) 



LETTER TO SIR HYDE PARKER 469 

a single subject, and inspired by the spirit of tlie writer when 
in a state of more than usual exaltation, it possesses a unity 
of purpose and demonstration, necessarily absent from most 
of his letters, in which many and diverse matters have to be 
treated. 

24tli March, 1801, 
My dear Sir Hyde, — The conversation we had yesterday has 
naturally, from its importance, been the subject of my thoughts ; and 
the more I have reflected, the more I am confirmed in opinion, that 
not a moment should be lost in attacking the enemy : they will every 
day and hour be stronger ; we never shall be so good a match for 
them as at this moment. The only consideration iu my mind is, 
how to get at them with the least risk to our ships. By Mr. Yansit- 
tart's account, the Danes have taken every means in their power to 
prevent our getting to attack CoiDenhagen by the passage of the 
Sound. Cronenburg has been strengthened, the Crown Islands for- 
tified, on the outermost of which are twenty guns, pointing mostly 
downwards, and only eight hundred yards from very formidable 
batteries placed under the Citadel, supported by five Sail of the Line, 
seven Floating batteries of fifty guns each, besides Small-craft, Gun- 
boats, &c. &c. ; and that the Revel Squadron of twelve or fourteen ' 
Sail of the Line are soon expected, as also five Sail of Swedes. It 
would appear by what you have told me of your instructions, that 
Government took for granted you would find no difficulty in getting 
off Copenhagen, and in the event of a failure of negotiation, you 
, might instantly attack; and that there woiild be scarcely a doubt but 
" the Danish Fleet would be destroyed, and the Capital made so hot 
that Denmark woidd listen to reason and its true interest. By ]\Ir. 
Vansittart's account, their state of preparation exceeds what he con- 
ceives our Government thought possible, and that the Danish Govern- 
jment is hostile to us in the greatest possible degree. Therefore here 
/ you are, with almost the safety, certainly with the honour of England 
I more intrusted to you, than ever yet fell to the lot of any British 
Officer. On your decision depends, whether our Country shall be 
degraded in the eyes of Europe, or whether she shall rear her head 
higher than ever; again do I repeat, never did our Country depend 
so much on the success of any Fleet as on this. How best to honour 
our Country and abate the pride of her Enemies, by defeating their 
schemes, must be the subject of your deepest consideration as Com- 
mander-in-Chief; and if what I have to offer can be the least useful 
in forming yoiTr decision, yon are most heartily welcome. 

I shall begin with supposing you are determined to enter by the 
Passage of the Sound, as there are those who think, if you leave that 
passage open, that the Danish Fleet may sail from Copenhagen, and 



470 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

join the Dutch or French. I own I haA^e no fears on that subject; 
for it is not likely that whilst their Capital is menaced with an attack, 
9,000 of her best men should be sent out of the Kingdom. I suppose 
that some damage may arise amongst our masts and yards ; yet per- 
haps thei'e will not be one of them but could be made serviceable 
again. You are now about Cronenburg : if the wind be fair, and 
you determine to attack the Ships and Crown Islands, j'ou must ex- 
pect the natural issue of such a battle — Ships crippled, and perhaps 
one or two lost; for the wind which carries you in, will most prolia- 
bly not bring out a crippled Ship. This mode I call taking the bull 
by the horns. It, however, will not prevent the Revel Ships, or 
Swedes, from joining the Danes ; and to prevent this from taking 
effect, is, in my humble opinion, a measure absolutely necessary — 
and still to attack Copenhagen. Two modes are in my view; one 
to pass Cronenburg, taking the risk of damage, and to pass up^ the 
deejiest and straightest Channel above the Middle Grounds ; and 
coming down the Garbar or King's Channel, to attack their Floating 
batteries, &c. &c., as we find it convenient. It must have the effect 
of preventing a junction between the Russians, Swedes, and Danes, 
and may give us an opportunity of bomliarding Copenhagen. I am 
also pretty certain that a passage could be found to the northward 
of Southolm for all our Ships ; perhaps it might be necessary to warp 
a short distance in the very nai-row part. Should this mode of attack 
be ineligible, the passage of the Belt, I have no doubt, would be ac- 
complished in four or five days, and then the attack by Draco could 
be carried into effect, and the junction of the Russians prevented, 
with every probability of success against the Danish Floating bat- 
teries. What effect a bombardment might have, I am not called upon 
to give an oi")inion ; but think the w^ay would be cleared for the trial. 
Supposing us through the Belt with the wind first westerly, would 
it not be possible to either go with the Fleet, or detach ten Ships of 
three and two decks, with one > Bomb and two Fireships, to Revel, to 
destroy the Russian Squadron at that place ? I do not see the great 
risk of such a detachment, and with the remainder to attempt the 
business at Copenhagen. The measure may be thought bold, but I 
am of opinion the boldest measures are the safest ; and our Country 
/^ demands a most vigorous exertion of her force, directed with judg- 
ment. In supporting you, my dear Sir Hyde, through the arduous 
and important task you have undertaken, no exertion of head 
or heart shall be wanting from your most obedient and faithful 
servant, 

Nelsox axd Bronte. 

1 That is, from noiih to south. It may be well to notice that to go from 
the Kattegat to the Baltic is vp, although from north to south. 



THE BALTIC EXPEDITION 471 

On the 25th. the wind was too strong to allow the ships 
to lift their anchors. On the 26th the fleet weighed, and pro- 
ceeded for a few hours in the direction of the Great Belt, 
which Parker had decided to follow. Captain Otway of the 
" London," Sir Hyde's flagship, chanced to have local knowl- 
edge of that passage, which had not come before the council, 
because he was not a member. When he ascertained the in- 
tention, he explained the difficulties and risks to the adn;iral, 
upon which the latter concluded that the batteries of Crouen- 
burg and Elsinore presented fewer dangers. He accordingly 
directed the fleet to return toward the Sound, and sent Otway 
to tell Nelson he should take that route. " I don't care a 
d — n by which passage we go," replied the latter, " so that we 
fight them." " Sir Hyde Parker," he wrote the same day to 
Lady Hamilton, "has by this time found out the worth of 
your Nelson, and that he is a useful sort of man on a pinch ; 
therefore, if he ever has thought unkindly of me, I freely for- 
give him. Nelson must stand among the first, or he must 
fall." Side by side with such expressions of dauntless resolve 
and unfailing self-confidence stand words of deepest tender- 
ness, their union under one cover typifying aptly the twin 
emotions of heroic aspiration and passionate devotion, which 
at this time held within him alternate, j^et not conflicting, 
sway. In the same letter he tells her fondly, " You know I 
am more bigoted to your picture — the faithful representation 
of you I have with me — than ever a Neapolitan was to St. 
Januarius, and look upon you as my guardian angel, and God, 
I trust, will make you so to me. Plis will be done." From 
the time of leaving he wrote to her practically every day. 
" Mr. S. is quite right," he says to her on one occasion, "that 
through the medium of your influence is the surest way to 
get my interest. It is true, and it will ever be, whilst you 
hold your present conduct, for you never ask anything that 
does not do honour to your feelings, as the best won;ian, as 
far as my knowledge goes, that ever lived, and it must do me 
honour the complying with them." 

The fleet anchored again on the evening of the 26th of 
March, six miles from Cronenburg, and was there detained 
three days by head winds and calms. In this interval, Nel- | 
son's general plan of operations having been adopted, he 



472 THE LIFE OF NELSOK 

shifted his flag to a lighter ship, the "Elephant," seventy- 
four, commanded by Captain Foley, the same who had led 
^f^UiA'''^' the fleet inside the French line in Aboukir Bay. On the 30th, 
"^P^-^ the wind coming fair from northAvest, the ships weighed and 
passed Cronenburg Castle. It had been expected that the 
Swedish batteries would open upon them, but, finding they 
remained silent, the column inclined to that side, thus going 
clear of the Danish guns. " More powder and shot, I believe, 
never were thrown away," wrote Nelson, " for not one shot 
striick a single ship of the British fleet. Some of our ships 
fired ; but the Elephant did not return a single shot. I hope 
to reserve them for a better occasion." 
y: That afternoon they anchored again, about five miles below 
Copenhagen. Parker and Nelson, accompanied by several 
senior officers, went at once in a schooner to view the defences 
of the town. " We soon perceived," wrote Stewart, " that our 
delay had been of important advantage to the enemy, who had 
lined the northern edge of the shoals near the Crown batteries, 
and the front of the harbour and arsenal, with a formidable 
flotilla. The Trekroner (Three Crowns) Battery" — a strong 
work established on piles, whose position will be given — 
"appeared, in particular, to have been strengthened, and all 
the buoys of the Northern, and of the King's Channels had 
been removed." Nelson, however, was, or feigned to be, less 
impressed. " I have just been reconnoitring the Danish line 
of defence," he wrote to Lady Hamilton. "It looks for- 
midable to those who are children at war, but to my judgment, 
with ten sail-of-the-line I think I can annihilate them ; at 
all events, I hope to be allowed to try." This is again the 
same spirit of the seaman " determined to attack " at Aboukir ; 
the same resolution as before Bastia, where he kept shut in 
his own breast the knowledge of the odds, feeling that to do 
nothing was as bad as failure — and worse. A like eagerness 
' does not seem to have prevailed on board the flagship. 
Parker had allowed himself to be stiffened to the fighting-point 
by the junior he had before disregarded, but that he looked to 
the issue with more than doubt may be inferred from the 
words of his private secretary, the Eev. Mr. Scott, who after- 
wards held the same relation to Nelson. " I fear," he wrote 
on the day of the council, " there is a great deal of Quixotism 



BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN 

APRIL 2.1801. 



References: 



A' Agamemnon, af Anchor 
BB-Brih'sh Line of Baffle. 
C.C" British 5 flips Aground, 
ii" British Frigates. 



D.D- Danish Line of Hulks. 

N- Anchorage of Nelson's Division, 

April 1-2. 
P~Anchorage of British Main Fleet 

under Sir H. ParKer. 




PLAN OF ATTACK 47:: 



in this business ; there is no getting any positive information 
of their strength." 

Nelson's general plan of attack is set forth in main outlines 
in the letter already given, but it is desirable to.give a some- 
what more detailed description. It will be seen, by the an- 
nexed chart, that there are before Copenhagen two channels 
by which the city can be passed. Between the two lies a shoal, 
called the Middle Ground. The inner, known as the King's 
Channel, lay under the guns of the defences which had been 
hurriedly improvised for the present emergency. These con- 
sisted of a line of hulks, mostly mastless, ranged along the 
inner side of the King's Channel, close to the flats which bor- 
dered it, flanked at the northern end by the permanent work, 
called the Trekroner ^ Battery. Westward of the latter lay, 
across the mouth of the harbor proper, two more hulks, and 
a small squadron consisting of two ships-of-the-line and a 
frigate, masted, and in commission. This division was not 
seriously engaged, and, as a factor in the battle, may be 
disregarded. 

The northern part of this defence was decisively the stronger. 
To attack there, Kelson called '• taking the bull by the horns." 
The southern wing was much more exposed. Nor was this 
all. An advance from the north must be made with a north- 
erly wind. If unsuccessful, or even, in case of success, if 
ships were badly crippled, they could not return to the north, 
where the fleet Avas. On the other hand, attack from the 
south presupposed a southerly wind, with which, after an ac- 
tion, the engaged ships could rejoin the fleet, if they threaded 
safely the difficult navigation. In any event there was risk, 
but none knew better than Nelson that without risks war is 
not made. To the considerations above given he added that, 
when south of the city, the British would be interj^osed be- 
tween the other Baltic navies and Denmark. The latter, in 
that case, could not receive reinforcements, unless the English 
squadron were first defeated. He therefore proposed that ten 
ships-of-the-line, of the lighter draughts, which he offered him- 
self to lead, should pass through the outer, or northern channel, 
gain the southern flank of the defence, and thence make the prin- 

1 Trekroner, wlneli was then a favorite military name in Denmark, refers to 
the three Crowns of Demnark, Norway, and Sweden, once united. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



cipal attack, while tlie rest of the fleet supported them by a 
demonstration against the northern end. The sagacity of this 
scheme is best attested from the enemy himself. " We have 
been deceived in the plan of attack," wrote the historian 
JSTiebuhr, then residing in the city ; " and," now that the right 
wing of the defence is destroyed, " all is at stake." The 
nights of the 30th and 31st were employed in surveying the 
waters, laying down buoys to replace those removed by the 
Danes, and in further reconnoissance of the enemy's position. 
The artillery officers who were to supervise the bombardment 
satisfied themselves that, if the floating defences south of the 
Trekroner were destroyed, the bomb-vessels could be placed 
in such a position as to shell the city, without being them- 
selves exposed to undue peril. 

Parker gave JSTelson twelve ships-of-the-line, two more than 
he had asked; a judicious addition, for the main part of the 
fighting was to fall to him, and the difficulties of pilotage 
might, and actually did, deprive him of several ships. More- 
over, while it was proposed that the vessels remaining with 
Parker should approach and engage the northern defences, yet 
the time of attack depended upon a fair wind for JSTelson ; and 
as that would necessarily be foul for the other body, the 
diversion made by it might be, and proved to be, ineffective. 
Sound judgment dictated giving Nelson all that could be 
spared. 

On the afternoon of the 31st another council was held, in 
which Nelson's plan was finally ratified ; he again volunteered 
his services, which were accepted and his force detailed. As 
usual, the council was prolific in suggestions of danger. 
Stewart, who seems to have been present, writes: "During 
this Council of War, the energy of Lord Nelson's character 
was remarked: certain difficulties had been started by some 
of the members, relative to each of the three Powers we should 
either have to engage, in succession or united, in those seas. 
The number of the Russians was, in particular, represented as 
formidable. Lord Nelson kept pacing the cabin, mortified at 
everything that savoured either of alarm or irresolution. 
AVhen the above remark was applied to the Swedes, he sharply 
observed, ' The more numerous the better ; ' and when to the 
Russians, he repeatedly said, 'So much the better, I wish they 



PLAN OF ATTACK 475 



were twice as many, the easier the victory, depend on it.' He 
alhuled, as he afterwards explained in private, to the total 
want of tactique among the Korthern fleets; and to his inten- 
tion, whenever he should bring either the Swedes or Russians 
to action, of attacking the head of their line, and confusing 
their movements as much as possible. He used to say, ' Close 
with a Frenchman, but out-mauoeuvre a Russian.' " 

Nelson gave personal supervision to the general work of 
buoying the Northern Channel. On the morning of April 1st 
he made a final examination of the ground in the frigate 
" Amazon," commanded by Captain Riou, who fell in the next 
day's battle. Returning at about one in the afternoon, he 
signalled his division to weigh, and, the wind favoring, the 
whole passed without accident, the "Amazon" leading. By 
nightfall they were again anchored, south of the Middle 
Ground, not over two miles from that end of the Danish line. 
As the anchor dropped, Nelson called out emphatically, "I 
will fight them the moment I have a fair wind." As there 
were in all thirty-three ships of war, they were crowded to- 
gether, and, being Avithiu shelling distance of the mortars on 
Amag Island, might have received much harm ; but the Danes 
were too preoccupied with their yet incomplete defences to 
note that the few shells thrown dropped among their enemies. 

"On board the Elephant," writes Stewart, who with his 
soldiers had followed Nelson from the " St. George," " the 
night of the 1st of April was an important one. As soon as 
the fleet was at anchor, the gallant Nelson sat down to table 
with a large party of his comrades in arms. He was in the 
highest spirits, and drank to a leading wind and to the success 
of the ensuing day. Captains Foley, Hardy, Fremantle, Riou, 
Inman, Admiral Graves, his Lordship's second in command, 
and a few others to whom he was particularly attached, were 
of this interesting party ; from which every man separated 
with feelings of admiration for their great leader, and with 
anxious impatience to follow him to the approaching battle. 
The signal to prepare for action had been made early in the 
evening. All the captains retired to their respective ships, 
Riou excepted, who with Lord Nelson and Foley arranged the 
Order of Battle, and those instructions that were to be issued 
to each^ ship on the succeeding day. These three officers re- 



476 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tired between nine and ten to the after-cabin, and drew up 
those Orders that have been generally published, and which 
ought to be referred to as the best proof of the arduous nature 
of the enterprise in which the fleet was about to be engaged. 

" From the previous fatigue of this day, and of the two pre- 
ceding, Lord Nelson was so much exhausted while dictating 
his instructions, that it was recommended to him by us all, 
t-/. and, indeed, insisted upon by his old servant, ^llen, who 
assumed much command on these occasions, that he should go 
to his cot. It was placed on the floor, but from it he still 
continued to dictate. Captain Hardy returned about eleven. 
He had rowed as far as the leading ship of the enemy ; sound- 
ing round her, and using a pole when he was apprehensive of 
being heard. He reported the practicability of the Channel, 
and the depth of water up to the ships of the enemy's line. 
Had we abided by this report, in lieu of confiding in our 
Masters and Pilots, we should have acted better. The Orders 
were completed about one o'clock, when half a dozen clerks in 
the foremost cabin proceeded to transcribe them. Lord Nel- 
son's impatience again showed itself; for instead of sleeping 
undisturbedly, as he might have done, he was every half hour 
calling from his cot to these clerks to hasten their work, for 
that the wind was becoming fair : he was constantly receiving 
a report of this during the night." It was characteristic of 
the fortune of the "heaven-born" admiral, that the wind 
which had been fair the day before to take him south, changed 
by the hour of battle to fair to take him north; but it is only 
just to notice also that he himself never trifled with a fair 
wind, nor with time. 

The Orders for Battle, the process of framing which Stewart 
narrates, have been preserved in full ; ■*■ but they require a 
little study and analysis to detect Nelson's thought, and their 
tactical merit, which in matters of detail is unique among his 
works. At the Nile and Trafalgar he contented himself with 
general plans, to meet cases which he could only foresee in 
broad outlines ; the method of application he reserved to the 
moment of battle, when again he signified the general direction 
of the attack, and left the details to his subordinates. Here 

1 They are to be found iu Nicolas's "Despatclies and Letters of Lord 
Nelson," vol. iv. p. 304. 




11, U-. 

o o. . 

CD O 
O 



>2 



.1 



S '^ -s -§ ;^ ^ 
^ -s ^ ^ >S ^ 



, ?5 1 .^ ^ S 



Alio 



•^ 

si 






«0 >) fNi 



5^ Cto 













PLAN OF ATTACK 477 



at Copenhagen He had been able to study the hostile disposi- 
tions. Consequently, although he could not mark with preci- 
sion the situations of the smaller floating batteries, those of 
the principal blockships were known, and upon that knowledge 
he based very particular instructions for the position each 
ship-of-the-line was to occupy. The smaller British vessels 
also had specific orders. 

Taking the Trekroner as a point of reference for the Danish 
order, there were north of it, on the Danish left flank, two 
blockships. South of it were seven blockships, with a number 
of miscellaneous floating batteries, which raised that wing of 
the defence to eighteen — the grand total being therefore 
twenty. This was also N'elson's count, except that he put one 
small vessel on the north wing, reducing the southern to seven- 
teen — an immaterial difference. South of the Trekroner, 
the Danes had disposed their seven blockships — which were 
mastless ships-of-the-line — as follows. Two were on the 
right flank, supporting each other, two on the left, the three 
others spaced between these extremes ; the distance from the 
Trekroner to the southernmost ship being about a mile and a 
half. The intervals were filled with the floating batteries. It 
will be recognized that the Danes treated this southern wiug 
as an entity by itself, of which they strengthened the flanks, 
relying for the protection of the centre upon the nearness to 
shoal water, which would prevent the line being pierced. 

As thus described, the southern wing covered the front of 
the city against bombardment. The two northern blockships 
and the Trekroner did not conduce materially to that ; they 
protected chiefly the entrance of the harbor. It was therefore 
only necessary to reduce the southern wing ; but Nelson pre- 
ferred to engage at once the whole line of vessels and the 
Trekroner. It is difficult entirely to approve this refusal to 
concentrate upon a part of the enemy's order, — an advantage 
to which Nelson was fully alive, — but it was probably due to 
underestimating the value of the Danish gunnery, knowing as 
he did how long they had been at peace. He may, also, have 
hoped something from Parker's division. Be this as it may, 
he spread his ships-of-the-line, in the arrangement he pre- 
scribed, from one end to the other of the enemy's order. 

Having done this, however, he adopted measures well cal- 



418 THE LIFE OF NELSOJ? 

culated to cvush the southern flank speedil}-, and then to 
accumulate superior numbers on the northern. The British 
were arranged in a column of attack, and the directions were 
that the three leading ships should pass along the hostile line, 
engaging as they went, until the headmost reached the fifth 
Dane, a blockship inferior to itself, abreast which it was to 
anchor by the stern, as all the British ships were to do. Num- 
bers two and three were then to pass number one, and anchor 
successively ahead of her, supporting her there against the 
other enemy's batteries, while four and five were to anchor 
astern of her, engaging the two flank blockships, which would 
have received already the full broadsides of the three leading 
vessels. Nelson hoped that the two southern Danes, by this 
concentration of fire upon them, would be speedily silenced ; 
and their immediate antagonists had orders, when that was 
done, to cut their cables and go north, to reinforce the fight in 
that quarter. The sooner to attain this end, a frigate and 
some smaller vessels were told off to take position across 
the bows of the two blockships', and to keep a raking fire upon 
them. 

The dispositions for the other British vessels were more 
simple. They were to follow along the outer side of their 
own engaged ships, each one anchoring as it cleared the head- 
most ship* already in action, — number six ahead of number 
five, number seven of number six, — so that the twelfth would 
be abreast the twentieth Dane. One ship-of-the-line was of 
course thought equivalent to two or three floating batteries, if 
opposed to them in an interval. By this arrangement, each of 
the British was covered in its advance, until it reached its pre- 
scribed antagonist as nearly fresh as possible, and the order of 
the British column was reversed from end to end.-"- A division 
of frigates and fireships, under Captain Riou, was held ready for 
any special service. The bomb-vessels were to anchor in the 
King's Channel, but well outside the line of battle, from which 
position they threw some bombs. Alongside each ship-of-the- 
line was towed a flat-boat, intended to carry soldiers in an 
attempt to storm the Trekroner, if circumstances favored; and 
other boats were sent for that purpose from Parker's division. 

^ Except numbers 4 and 5, whose stations, as has been said, were abreast 
the two southernmost Danes. 



PLAN 01* ATTACK 479 



These orders were copied, and ready for distribution, by 
six in the morning. Kelson, who was already up and had 
breakfasted, signalled at seven for all captains, and by eight 
these had their instructions. The Avind had become so fair 
that ships anchoring by the stern would lie perfectly well 
for using their broadsides at once. At this instant indecision 
appeared among the pilots, who were mostly men of only 
a little local experience, and that gained in vessels much 
smaller than those they were now to conduct, l^elson, re- 
verting afterwards to these moments, said: "I experienced in 
the Sound the misery of having the honour of our Country _ 
intrusted to pilots, who have no other thought than to keep 
the ship clear of danger, and their own silly heads clear of 
shot. At eight in the morning of the 2d of April, not one ' 
pilot would take charge of a ship." There is in these words 
scarcely fair allowance for the men's ignorance. At length 
one of the Masters of the fleet, a Mr. Brierley, undertook to 
lead the column, and the signal to weigh in succession was 
made. The leading ship got off handsomely, but difficulties 
soon arose. Nelson's old " Agamemnon " was so anchored 
that she could not Aveather the Middle Ground; she conse- 
quently did not get into action at all. Two other ships, the 
"Bellona" and *' Russell," seventy-fours, grounded on the 
west side of the Middle Ground, where they remained fast. 
Although they could use their guns, and did use them against 
those southern ships which Nelson particularly wanted crushed, 
the disadvantages of distance, of position, and of general help- 
lessness, detracted exceedingly from their usefulness. The 
valid British force was thus reduced by one-fourth, — to nine 
vessels. 

Nelson's ship, the "Elephant," was following the "Bel- 
lona" and "Russell," and he saw them ground. " His agita- 
tion during these moments was extreme," says an eye-witness. 
"I shall never forget the impression it made on me. It was 
not, however, the agitation of indecision, but of ardent, 
animated patriotism panting for glory, which had appeared 
within his reach, and was vanishing from his grasp." He 
doubtless well knew the thinly veiled reproaches of rashness, 
cast by timid counsels upon the daring, which even under 
these disadvantages was to cover with confusion their 



480 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

prophecies of disaster ; but, as on many another day, and in 
that more famous incident, a few hours hater, in this same 
battle, his tenacious purpose harbored no side-thought of 
retreat. " Before you receive this," he had written to Lady 
Hamilton, ''all will be over with Denmark, — either your 
Nelson will be safe, and Sir Hyde Parker a victor, or he, 
your own Nelson, will be laid low." The signal to advance 
was kept flying, but new dispositions had to be made to meet 
the new and adverse conditions.^ The remaining ships were 
made to close to the rear, as they anchored. The " Elephant" 
had been originally assigned as antagonist to the biggest 
Danish ship, the "Sjaelland," seventy -f our ; but, the " Bel- 
lona " having grounded, she now dropped into the latter's 
berth immediately ahead of the "Glatton ; " and Nelson hailed 
the "Ganges," as she was passing, to place herself as close 
as possible ahead of the "Elephant." This movement v/as 
imitated by the •'Monarch," which thus got the "Elephant's " 
position abreast the " Sjaelland." Here, according to Danish 
accounts, the contest stood for some time, until the "Defi- 
ance," Graves's flagship, arriving, anchored ahead of the 
"Monarch," completing the line of nine British ships. Cap- 
tain Eiou with his light division engaged the Trekroner, and 
the Danish blockship next south of it, which was by him 
terribly battered. Erom this moment, and for some time, to 
use subsequent words of Nelson, " Here was no manoeuvring : 
it was downright fighting." 

Meanwhile Parker's division, which had weighed as agreed, 
was some four miles off, beating up against Nelson's fair 
wind. It had not yet come into action, and the anxious chief, 
ever doubtful of the result of a step into which he had been 
persuaded, contrary, not, perhaps, to his will, but certainly 
to his bent, watched the indecisive progress of the strife 
with a mind unoccupied by any fighting of his own. Two 

1 The following is the order of the ships in the column of attack, as 
originally prescribed : — 

1. Edgar, 74. 7. Elephant, 74. 

2. Ardent, 64. 8. Ganges, 74. 
?.. Giatton, 54. 9. Monarch, 74. 

4. Isis, 50. 10. Defiance, 74. 

5. Agamemnon, 64. 11. Russell, 74. 

6. Bellona, 74. 12. Polyphemus, 64. 




VICE-ADMIRAL, SIR HYDE PARKER. 

After the painting by G. Romney. 



BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN 481 

things were evident: that Nelson had met with some mis- 
haps, and that the Danish resistance was more prolonged 
and sturdier than he had argued in the Council that it would 
be. Parker began to talk about making the signal to leave 
off action, and the matter was discussed between himself, 
his fleet-captain, and Otway, the captain of the ship. The 
latter opposed the idea strongly, and at last, as a stay, ob- 
tained the admiral's authority to go on board the "Elephant" 
and learn how things were. He shoved off accordingly, but 
before he reached Nelson the signal was made. 

Nelson at the moment was walking the (^uarter-deck of the 
"Elephant," which was anchored on the bow of the Danish 
flagship " Dannebroge," engaging her and some floating bat- 
teries ahead of her. At this time, Stewart says, " Few, if 
any, of the enemy's heavy ships and praams had ceased to 
fire ; " and, after mentioning various disappointments that 
had befallen the smaller British vessels, besides the failure 
of three heavy ships to reach their stations, he continues : 
" The contest, in general, although from the relaxed state of 
the enemy's fire, it might not have given much room for 
apprehension as to the result, had certainly not declared 
itself in favour of either side. Nelson was sometimes much 
animated, and at others heroically fine in his observations. 
A shot through the mainmast knocked a few splinters about 
us. He observed to me, with a smile, 'It is warm work, and 
this day may be the last to any of us at a moment; ' and 
then, stopping short at the gangway, he used an expression 
never to be erased from my memory, and said with emotion, 
'but mark you, I would not be elsewhere for thousands.' 

"When the s igna l. No. 39, was made, the Signal Lieu- 
tenant reported it to him. He continued his walk, and did not 
appear to take notice of it. The lieutenant meeting his Lord- 
ship at the next turn asked, 'whether he should repeat it?' 
Lord Nelson answered, ' No, acknowledge it.' ^ On the officer 
returning to the poop, his Lordship called after him, ' Is No. 
16 [For Close Action] still hoisted ? ' The lieutenant an- 
swering in the affirmative. Lord Nelson said, ' Mind you keep 

^ To acknowledge a signal is siinply to hoist a flag, showing that it has 
been seen and understood. To repeat is to hoist the signal yourself, thus 
transmitting it as an order to those concerned. 

31 



482 THE LIFE OF KELSON 

it so.' He now walked the deck considerably agitated, which 
was always known by his moving the stump of his right arm. 
After a turn or two, he said to me, in a quick manner, ' Do 
you know what 's shown on board the Commander-in-Chief, 
JSTo. 39 ? ' On asking him what that meant, he answered, 
' Why, to leave off action.' 'Leave off action ! ' he repeated, 
and then added, with a shrug, 'Now damn me if I do.' He 
also observed, I believe, to Captain Foley, * You know, Foley, 
I have only one eye — I have a right to be blind sometimes ; ' 
and then with an archness peculiar to his character, putting 
the glass to his blind e3^e, he exclaimed, ' I really do not see 
the signal.' This remarkable signal was, therefore, only ac- 
knowledged on board the Elephant, not repeated. Admiral 
Graves did the latter, not being able to distinguisli the Ele- 
phant's conduct : either by a fortunate accident, or intention- 
ally, No. 16 was not displaced. 

y^ " The squadron of frigates obeyed the signal, and hauled 

-^off. That brave officer. Captain Eiou, was killed by a raking 
shot, when the Amazon showed her stern to the Trekroner. 
He was sitting on a gun, was encouraging his men, and had 
been wounded in the head by a splinter. He had expressed 
himself grieved at being thus obliged to retreat, and nobly 
observed, ' What will Nelson think of us ? ' His clerk was 
killed by his side ; and by another shot, several of the marines, 
while hauling on the mainbrace, shared the same fate. E,iou 
then exclaimed, ' Come then, my boys, let us all die together ! ' 
The words were scarcely uttered, when the fatal shot severed 
him in two. Thus, and in an instant, was the British service 
deprived of one of its greatest ornaments, and society of a 
character of singular worth, resembling the heroes of ro- 

- mance." Fortunately for the British, not a ship-of-the-line 
T budged. Graves had indeed transmitted the order by repeat- 
ing it, but as he kept that for close action also flying, and 
did not move himself, the line remained entire throughout 

. a period when the departure of a single ship would have 
ruined all, and probably caused its own destruction. 

This incident of refusing to see the signal has become as 
hackneyed as a popular ballad, and in its superficial aspect, 
showing Nelson as the mere fighting man, who, like a plucky 
dog, could not be dragged off his antagonist, might well now 



BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN 483 

have been dismissed with the shortest and most summary 
mention. Of Late years doubt has been cast over tlie reality 
of Nelso-n's disobedience, for the reason that Otway, whose 
mission has already been noted, carried a verbal message that 
the order was to be understood as permissive, leaving Nelson 
the liberty to obey or not. From Otway 's biography, however, 
it appears tliat the signal was hoisted before he reached the 
"Elephant." Parker's Secretary, Mr. Scott, has also stated 
distinctly, tliat "it was arranged between the admirals, that, 
should it appear the ships which were engaged were suffering 
too severely, the signal for retreat would be made, to give 
Lord Nelson the opUon of retiring, if he thought fit." ^ 

On the other hand, without affirming positively, it should 
be said that Nelson's own impressions do not seem to have 
agreed with Scott's. Not only did he say, some hours after "> (5>i(^ 
the fight, " Well, I haye_iought contrary to orders, and I ( ^ 
shall perhaps be hanged ; never mind, let them," — which 
might pass as a continuation of the quarter-deck drama, if 
such it was, — but his account of the matter to Lord Minto- 
is not consistent with any clear understanding, on his part, 
that he had such liberty of action. Nearly a year later, in 
March, 1802, Minto writes : " Lord Nelson explained to me 
a little, on Saturday last, the sort of blame which had been 
imputed to Sir Hyde Parker for Copenhagen ; in the first 
place, for not commanding the attack in person, and in the 
next place for making signals to recall the fleet during the 
action ; and everything would have been lost if these signals 
had been obeyed." If Nelson understood that the signal was 
to be construed as permissive only, it was extremely ungener- 
ous, and most unlike Nelson, to have withheld an explanation 
which extenuated, if it did not excuse, one of the most dan- 
gerous and ill-judged orders that ever Avas conveyed by flags; 
nor is it probable that Parker, if the understanding had been 
explicit, would not have insisted with the Admiralty upon 
the fact, when he was smarting under the general censure, 
which had led to talk of an inquiry. It seems, also, unlikely 
that Nelson, having such a contingency in view, would have 
failed to give explicit instructions that his ships should not 

1 Life of Rev. Dr. A. J. Scott, p. 70. 



484 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

withdraw (as Kiou's frigates did) unless he repeated; nor is 
it easy to reconcile the agitation noted by Stewart with a 
previous arrangement of the kind asserted. 

What Parker said was, probably, simply one of those by- 
remarks, with which an apprehensive man consoles himself 
that he reserves a chance to change his mind. Such pro- 
vision rarel}^ entered Nelson's head when embarking upon an 
enterprise in whicli " do or die " was the only order for suc- 
cess. The man who went into the Copenhagen fight with an 
eye upon withdrawing from action would have been beaten 
before he began. It is upon the clear perception of this truth, 
and his tenacious grip of it, that the vast merit of Nelson in 
this incident depends, and not upon the disobedience ; though 
never was disobedience more justified, more imperative, more 
glorious. To retire, with crippled ships and mangled crews, 
through difficult channels, under the guns of the half-beaten 
foe, who would renew his strength when he saw the move- 
ment, would be to court destruction, — to convert probable 
victory into certain, and perhaps overwhelming, disaster. It 
was not, however, only in superiority of judgment or of fight- 
ing quality that Nelson in this one act towered like a giant 
above his superior ; it was in that supreme moral character- 
istic which enabled him to shut his eyes to the perils and 
doubts surrounding the only path by wliich he could achieve 
success, and save his command from a defeat verging on an- 
nihilation. The pantomime of putting the glass to his blind 
eye was, however unintentionally, a profound allegory. There 
is a time to be blind as well as a time to see. And if in it 
there was a little bit of conscious drama, it was one of those 
touches that not only provoke the plaudits of the spectators, 
but stir and raise their hearts, giving them both an example 
of heroic steadfastness, and also the assurance that there is 
one standing by upon whom their confidence can repose to 
the bitter end, — no small thing in the hour of hard and 
doubtful battle. It had its counterpart in the rebuke ad- 
dressed by him on this very occasion to a lieutenant, who 
uttered some desponding words on the same quarter-deck : 
"At such a moment, the delivery of a desponding opinion, 
unasked, was highly reprehensible, and deserved much more 
censure than Captain Foley gave you." 



BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN 483 

At two o'clock, an hour after the signal was made, the 
resistance of the Danes had perceptibly slackened; the 
greater part of their line, Stewart says, had ceased to reply. 
The flagship " Dannebroge " had been on fire as early as half- 
past eleven, and the coniniander-in-chief. Commodore Fischer, 
had felt necessary to shift his broad pendant to the "Hol- 
stein," the second ship from the north flank. The '< Danne- 
broge" continued to fight bravely, losing two hundred and 
seventy killed and wounded out of a total of three hundred 
and thirty-six, but at length she was driven out of the line 
in flames, and grounded near the Trekroner, where she blew 
up after the action. The " Sjaelland," seventy-four, next 
north of her, was likewise carried out of the line by her cables 
being cut; while the "Holstein," and the northernmost ship 
of all, the '' Indfodsretten," were so shattered, the latter 
mainly by Kiou's frigates, that Fischer again shifted his flag, 
this time to the Trekroner. The two southern flank ships, 
upon whom the most concentrated attack was made, had also 
met with tremendous losses. Their flags were shot away 
many times, till at the last, by a Danish account, no one had 
time to raise them again, whence the impression arose amongst 
the British that these vessels, as well as some others, fought 
after having surrendered. 

This incident, occurring in several cases, was the imme- 
diate cause of Nelson's taking a step which both then and 
since has been blamed as an unjustifiable stratagem. So 
much of the Danish fire south of the Trekroner had ceased, 
that that wing could be looked upon as subdued; some vessels 
were helpless, some had their flags down. Between himself 
and the Trekroner, Nelson alleged, there was a group of four 
Danes, unresisting and unmanageable, across and through which 
the battery was firing, and the British replying. Ships which 
had struck repelled boats sent to board them, and the batteries 
on A mag Island also fired upon those boats, and over the 
surrendered Danes. That there was some ground for the 
complaints made by him appears from the Danish admission 
just quoted, as well as from several British statements ; Stew- 
art's being explicit. Kelson accordingly sent a message 
ashore, under a flag of truce, to the Crown Prince, who was 
in general command, saying that if he were not allowed to 



486 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

take possession of his prizes, he wouhl have to burn them. 
The message ran : — 

TO THE BROTHERS OF ENGLISHMEN, THE DANES. 

Lord Nelson has directions to spare Denmai'k, when no longer 
resisting ; but if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, Lord 
Nelson will be obliged to set on fire all the floating batteries he has 
taken, without having the power of saving the brave Danes who have 
defended them. 

Nelson and Bronte. 

It was in the preparation and despatch of this note that 
Nelson gave another illustration, often quoted, of his cool 
consideration of all the circumstances surrounding him, and 
of the politic regard to effect which he ever observed in his 
official intercourse with naen. It was written by his own hand, 
a secretary copying as he wrote. When finished, the original 
was put into an envelope, which the secretary was about to 
seal with a wafer ; but this Nelson would not permit, directing 
that taper and wax should be brought. The man sent was 
killed before he could return. AVhen this was reported to the 
admiral, his only reply was, " Send another messenger ; " and 
he waited ufttil the wax came, and then saw that particular 
care was exercised to make a full and perfect imj^ression of 
the seal, which bore his own arms. Stewart said to him, 
"May I take the liberty of asking why, under so. hot a fire, 
and after so lamentable an accident, you have attached so 
much importance to a circumstance apparently so trifling ? " 
Nelson replied, " Had I made use of the wafer, it would still 
have been wet when presented to the Crown Prince ; he would 
have inferred that the letter was sent off in a hurry, and that 
we had some very x^i'essing reasons for being in a hurry. The 
wax told no tales." 

A flag of truce in a boat asks no cessation of hostilities, 
except so far as the boat itself is concerned. As for the mes- 
sage sent, it simply insisted that the Danes should cease fir- 
ing; failing which, Nelson would resort to the perfectly 
regular, warlike measure of burning their ships. As the 
ships were beaten, this might not be humane ; but between it 
and leaving them under the guns of both parties, the question 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE 487 

of humanity was only one of degree. If Nelson could extort 
from the Danes a cessation of hostilities by such a threat, he 
had a perfect right to do it, and his claim that what he de- 
manded was required by humanity, is at least colorable. It 
must be observed, however, that he makes no suggestion of 
truce or armistice, — he demands that firing shall be discon- 
tinued, or he will resort to certain steps. 

The Crown Prince at once sent back his principal aid-de- 
camp, with a verbal message, which the latter reduced to 
writing, as follows : — 

" His Eoyal Highness, the Prince Royal of Denmark, has sent me, 
General Adjutant Lindholm, on board to his Britannic Majesty's 
Vice- Admiral, the Right Honourable Lord Nelson, to ask the particu- 
lar object of sending the flag of truce."' 

To this Nelson replied in writing : — 

"Lord Nelson's object in sending on shore a flag of truce is 
humanity ; he, therefore, consents that hostilities shall cease till Lord 
Nelson can take his prisoners out of the prizes, and he consents to 
land all the wounded Danes, and to burn or remove his prizes." 

This message concluded with a complimentary expression 
of hope that good relations would be restored between the 
two nations, whom Nelson always carefully spoke of as natu- 
ral friends. It will be observed that he again alludes only to 
the flag of truce sent by the boat, and, as at first he demanded, 
so now he consents to a cessation of hostilities, until he can 
secure his prisoners and remove his prizes. If he could 
rightly remove his prizes, which he avowed as part of his 
demand, then still more he could his own ships. This part of 
the negotiation he took upon himself to settle ; for discussion 
of any further matters he referred Lindholm to Sir Hyde 
Parker, and the Danish officer started for the '' London" at 
the same time that the English officer pushed off to carry 
Nelson's second message to the Crown Prince. The latter 
had already sent orders to the batteries to cease firing. The 
battle then ended, and both sides hoisted flags of truce. 

Nelson at once began to remove his ships, which had suf- 
fered more than in any other battle he had ever fought. 
That he was fully aware of the imminent necessity for some 
of them to withdraw, and of the advantage the Danes had 



488 THE LITE OE NELSON 

yielded him by accepting his terms, is indisputable, and his 
own. opinion was confirmed by that of two of his leading 
captains, whom he consulted. This he never denied ; but he 
did deny that he had used a ruse de guerre^ or taken unfair 
advantage of a truce. On the score of humanity he had con- 
sented to a cessation of hostilities, conditional upon his free- 
dom to take out of the surrendered ships the unwounded 
prisoners, and to remove the prizes. If the bargain was more 
to his advantage than to that of the Danes — wliich is a matter 
of opinion — it was none the less a bargain, of which he had 
full right to reap the benefit. The Danes did not then charge 
him with taking an unfair advantage. On the contrary, Lind- 
holin, who was closely cognizant of all that passed in relation 
to these negotiations, wrote to him : " Your Lordship's motives 
for sending a flag of truce to our Government can never be 
misconstrued, and your subsequent conduct has sufficiently 
shown that humanity is always the companion of true valour." 
The truce that then began was prolonged from day to day till 
April 9th. During it both parties went on with their prepa- 
rations for war. "These few days," wrote Niebuhr, on the 
6th, "have certainly been employed in repairing the evil [of 
faulty preparation] as far as possible." It is clear that the 
Danes understood, what Nelson's message specified, a cessa- 
tion of direct hostilities, not of other movements. The British 
during the same days were putting bomb-vessels in place, a 
perfectly overt act. 

Nelson's success at Copenhagen was secured by address, as 
it had been won by force. But it had been thoroughly won. 
"We cannot deny it," wrote Niebuhr, "we are quite beaten. 
Our line of defence is destroyed. We cannot do much injury 
to the enemy, as long as he contents himself with bombarding 
the city, docks, and fleet. The worst is the Crown Batteries 
can be held no longer." Two or three days later he says 
again: "The truce has been prolonged. The remaining half 
of our defences are useless, now that the right wing is 
broken, — a defect over which I have meditated uselessly 
many a time since last summer." The result was due to Nel- 
son's sagacious and emphatic advice as to the direction and 
manner of the attack, by which the strong points of the Danish 
positions were completely and unexpectedly turned. This 



NELSON'S METIIT AT COPENHAGEN 489 

plan, it is credibly stated, he had formed before leaving 
England, although he was not formally consulted by Parker 
until the 23d of March. 

Having regard to the general political conditions, and 
especially to the great combination of the North at this time 
directed against Great Britain, the victory of Copenhagen was 
second in importance to none that Nelson ever gained ; while 
in the severity of the resistance, and in the attendant difficul- 
ties to be overcome, the battle itself was the most critical of 
all in which he was engaged. So conspicuous were the energy 
and sagacity shown by him, that most seamen will agree in 
the opinion of Jurien de la Graviere : " They will always be 
in the eyes of seamen his fairest title to glory. He alone was 
capable of displaying such boldness and perseverance ; he 
alone could confront the immense difficulties of that enterprise 
and overcome them." Notwithstanding this and notwithstand- 
ing that the valor of the squadron, as manifested in its losses, 
was never excelled, medals were not issued for the battle, nor 
were any individual rewards bestowed, except upon Nelson 
himself, who was advanced in the peerage to be a Viscount, 
and upon his immediate second, Kear-Admiral Graves, who 
was made a Knight of the Bath. The reasons for this action 
are shown by the following extract from the diary of Mr. 
George Rose : " Wednesday, April 22d. Breakfasted with 
Lord St. Vincent by appointment. . . . His Lordship entered 
on the late glorious victory at Copenhagen, and told me the 
merit of the attack rested solely with Lord Nelson, as Sir 
Hyde Parker had been decidedly adverse to the attempt being 
made, and was overruled only by the perseverance and firm- 
ness of the former; and that in the middle of the action Sir 
Hyde had made the signal (No. 39) for discontinuing the 
engagement, which Lord Nelson said to the officer who 
communicated it to him, he was sure proceeded from some 
mistake. When it was mentioned to Admiral Graves, he 
asked if it was repeated by Lord Nelson ; and on being 
answered in the negative, he said, ' Then we have nothing to 
do with it.' Lord St. Vincent then added, ' For these and 
other causes,' probably alluding to the armistice, ' we have 
recalled Sir Hyde, and Lord Nelson is to remain with the 
command.' His Lordship proceeded to say that this measure 



490 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of necessity put the Administration under some difficulty as to 
rewards of honour to the officers who had distinguished them- 
selves ; and that he had thought it advisable to delay any dis- 
tribution of medals or to recommend any stage in the peerage 
to Lord Nelson, conceiving that the whole might be done on 
the termination of the service with propriety, and without 
embarrassment respecting Sir Hyde Parker. . . . After I had 
left his Lordship, it occurred to me that as no measures can 
be kept with Sir Hyde Parker, it might be desirable to confer 
the intended step in the peerage on Lord Nelson now, and the 
medals on the other officers ; in which opinion Mr. Pitt con- 
curring, I wrote to suggest that to his Lordship," ^ 

" First secure the victory, then make the most of it," 
had been avowedly Nelson's motto before the Nile. In the 
Battle of Copenhagen he had followed much the same rule. 
After beating the force immediately opposed to him, he 
obtained the safe removal of his detachment from its critical 
position, by the shrewd use made of the advantage then in his 
hands. This achieved, and his ships having rejoined the 
main body, after various mishaps from grounding, under the 
enemy's guns, which emphasized over and over the adroit 
presence of mind he had displayed, it next fell to him to 
make the most of what the British had so far gained; having 
regard not merely to Denmark and Copenhagen, but to the 
whole question of British interests involved in the Coalition of 
the Baltic States. Parker intrusted to him the direct man- 
agement of the negotiations, just as he had given him the 
immediate command of the fighting. 

A circumstance, which completely changed the political 
complexion of affairs, was as yet unknown to him. On the 
night of March 24th the Czar Paul had been murdered, and 
with him fell the main motive force and support of the Armed 
Neutrality. Ignorant of this fact, Nelson's one object, the 
most to be made of the victory, was to get at the detachment 
of the Russian fleet — twelve ships — lying in the harbor of 
Bevel, before the breaking up of the ice allowed it to join the 
main body at Cronstadt. The difficulty in the way lay not in 
his hesitation to act instantly, nor in the power of the British 
fleet to do so ; it lay in the conflicting views of other persons, 

^ Diaries, etc., of Rt. Hon. George Eose, vol. i. p. 347. 



NEGOTIATIONS AT COPENHAGEN 491 

of the Crown Prince and of Parker, the representatives of 
Denmark and of Great Britain. Parker was resolved, so 
Nelson has told us, not to leave Denmark hostile in his rear, 
flanking his line of communications if he proceeded up the 
Baltic ; and Nelson admits, although with his sagacious dar- 
ing he would have disregarded, that the batteries commanding 
the shoal ground above Copenhagen might have seriously 
interrupted the passage. He was ready to run risks 
again for the very adequate object mentioned. On the other 
hand the Crown Prince, while recognizing the exposure of 
Copenhagen, feared to yield even to the menace of bombard- 
ment, lest he should incur the vengeance of the Czar. It was 
to find a middle term between these opposing motives that 
Nelson's diplomacy was exerted. 

On the 3d of April he went ashore to visit the Crown Prince, 
by whom he was received with all possible attention. " The 
populace," says Stewart, " showed a mixture of admiration, 
curiosity, and displeasure. A strong guard secured his safety, 
and appeared necessary to keep off the mob, whose rage, 
although mixed with admiration at his thus trusting himself 
amongst them, was naturally to be expected. It perhaps 
savored of rashness in him thus early to risk himself among 
them ; but with him his Country's cause was paramount to all 
personal considerations." Nelson himself did not note these 
threatening indications. Fond of observation, with vanity 
easily touched, and indifferent to danger, he heard only homage 
in the murmurs about him. "The people received me as they 
always have done ; and even the stairs of the palace were 
crowded, huzzaing, and saying, 'God bless Lord Nelson.'" 

His interview with the Grown Prince was private, only 
Lindholm being present. It ranged, according to his private 
letter to Addington, over the whole subject of tlie existing 
differences with Great Britain, and the respective interests 
of the two states. The most important points to be noticed 
in this personal discussion, which was preliminary to the 
actual negotiation, are, first, Nelson's statement of the cause 
for the presence of the British fleet, and, second, the basis of 
agreement he proposed. As regards the former, to a question 
of the Prince he replied categorically: The fleet is here "to 
crush a most formidable and unprovoked Coalition against 



492 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Great Britain." For the second, he said that the only founda- 
tion, upon which Sir Hyde Parker coukl rest his justification 
for not proceeding to bombardment, wouhl be the total sus- 
pension of the treaties with Russia for a fixed time, and the 
free use of Danish ports and supplies by the Uritish fleet. 
These two concessions, it will be observed, by neutralizing 
Denmark, would remove the threat to British communications, 
and convert Denmark into an advanced base of operations for 
the fleet. Nelson did not have great hope of success in ne- 
gotiating, for he observed that fear of Russia, not desire for 
war, was controlling the Prince. Therefore, had he been 
commander-in-chief, he would at all risks have pushed on to 
Revel, and struck the coalition to the heart there. " I make 
no scruple," he wrote to St. Vincent after he had procured 
the armistice, ''in saying that I would have been at Revel 
fourteen days ago. No man but those on the spot can tell 
what I have gone through, and do suffer. I wanted Sir Hyde 
to let me at least go and cruise off Carlscrona, [where the 
Swedish fleet was,] to prevent the Revel ships getting in. 
Think of me, my dear Lord, and if I have deserved well, 
let me retire ; if ill, for heaven's sake supersede me, for I 
cannot exist in this state." Pegasus was indeed shackled. 

The truce was continued from day to day, both sides pre- 
paring to renew hostilities, while the negotiators sat. Dis- 
cussing thus, sword in hand. Nelson frankly told the other 
side that he wanted an armistice for sixteen weeks, to give 
him time to act against the Russian fleet, and then to return 
to Denmark. On the likely supposition that the latter would 
not greatly grieve over a Russian disaster, this openness was 
probably discreet. In the wrangling that preceded consent, 
one of the Danes hinted, in Prench, at a renewal of hostilities. 
" Renew hostilities ! " said Nelson, who understood the lan- 
guage, but could not speak it, "tell him that we are ready at 
this moment ; ready to bombard this very night." But, while 
he thus could use on occasion the haughty language of one 
at whose back stood a victorious fleet of twenty ships-of-the- 
line, "the best negotiators in Europe," to repeat his own 
words, his general bearing was eminently conciliatory, as 
became one who really longed for peace in the particular in- 
stance, and was alive to the mingled horror and inutility of 



NEGOTIATIONS AT COPENHAGEN 493 

the next move open to Great Britain, under Parker's policy, 
— the bombardment of Copenhagen. " Whoever may be the 
respective Ministers v/ho shall sign the peace," wrote to him 
Count Waltersdorff, who with Lindholm conducted the Danish 
case and signed the armistice, " I shall always consider your 
lordship as the Pacificator of the Korth, and I am sure that 
your heart will be as much flattered by that title, as by any 
other which your grateful Country has bestowed upon you." 

Had Paul lived, the issue might have been doubtful, and in 
that case England might well have rued the choice of a 
commander-in-chief whose chief function was to hamstring 
her greatest seaman ; but the Danes received word of the 
murder, and on the 9th of April an agreement was reached. 
There was to be a cessation of hostilities for fourteen weeks, 
during which Denmark suspended her part in the Armed 
Neutrality, and would leave her ships of war in the same state 
of unpreparedness as they then were. The British fleet was 
at liberty to get supplies in all Danish ports. In return, it 
was merely stipulated that no attacks should be made on any 
part of the coast of Denmark proper. Norway ^ and the 
Danish colonies were not included, nor was Holstein. In a 
letter to Addington, Nelson pointed out that as a military 
measure, which it was, the result was that the hands of Den- 
mark were tied, those of the fleet loosed, its communications 
secured, its base of supplies advanced, and last, but far from 
least, the timid counsels of its commander-in-chief discon- 
certed ; no excuse for not advancing being left. Besides, as 
he said, to extort these concessions he had nothing in his 
hand but the threat of bombardment, which done, ''we had 
done our worst, and not much nearer being friends." Sir 
Hyde would not have advanced. 

As a military negotiation it is difficult to conceive one more 
adroitly managed, more perfectly conducive to the ends in 
view, or, it may be added, more clearly explained. The 
Government, with extraordinary dulness, replied in that 
patronizing oflicial tone of superior wisdom, which is prob- 
ably one of the most exasperating things that can be encoun- 
tered by a man of such insight and action as Nelson had 

1 Norway was then attached to the Danish Crown, as now to that of 
Sweden. 



494 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

displayed. " Upon a consideration of all the circumstances, 
His Majesty lias thought fit to approve." *'I am sorry," 
replied Nelson, "that the Armistice is only approved under 
all considerations. Now T own myself of opinion that every 
part of the all was to the advantage of oiir King and Coun- 
try." As First Lord of the Admiralty, old St. Vincent had 
to transmit this qualified approval ; but he wrote afterwards 
to Nelson : '' Your Lordship's whole conduct, from your first 
appointment to this hour, is the subject of our constant ad- 
miration. It does not become me to make comparisons : all 
agree there is but one Nelson." 

The armistice being signed and ratified, the fleet on the 
12th of April entered the Baltic ; the heavy ships having to 
remove their guns, in order to cross the " Grounds," between 
the islands of Amager and Saltholni. Nelson was left behind 
in the " St. George," which, for some reason, was not ready. 
"My commander-in-chief has left me," he wrote to Lady 
Hamilton, ••' but if there is any work to do, I dare say they 
will wait for me. Nelson ivill he first. Who can stop him? " 
"We have reports," he says again, "that the Swedish fleet 
is above the Shallows, distant five or six leagues. All our 
fellows are longing to be at them, and so do I, as great a boy 
as any of them, for I consider this as being at school, and 
going to England as going home for the holidays, therefore I 
really long to finish my task." His confidence in himself 
and in his fortune was growing apace at this time, as was 
both natural and justifiable. " This day, twenty-two years," 
he writes soon after, on the 11th of June, " I was made a 
Post-Captain by Sir Peter Parker. If yt)u meet him again, 
say that I shall drink his health in a bumper, for I do not 
forget that I owe my present exalted rank to his partiality, 
although I feel, if I had even been in an humbler sphere, that 
Nelson would have been Nelson still." Although always rev- 
erently thankful to the Almighty for a favorable issue to 
events, there does not seem to have been in him any keen 
consciousness of personal dependence, such as led Moltke to 
mark the text, " My strength is made perfect in weakness." 

While thus lying, about twenty- four miles from the main 
body, a report came that the Swedish squadron had put to 
sea. Alarmed lest a battle might take place in his absence, 



PARKER'S NEGLIGENCES 495 

Nelson jumped into a boat alougside, and started for a six 
hours' pull against wind and current to join the jEleet, in haste 
so great that he refused even to wait for a boat cloak. " His 
anxiety lest the fleet should have sailed before he got on 
board one of them," tells the officer who was with him " is 
beyond all conception. I will quote some expressions in his 
own words. It was extremely cold, and I Avished him to 
put on a great coat of mine which was in the boat: ' No, I am 
not cold; my anxiety for my Country will keep me warm. 
Do you not think the fleet has sailed?' 'I should suppose 
not, my Lord.' 'If they are, we shall follow them to 
Carlscrona in the boat, by G-d ! ' — I merely state this to show 
how his thoughts must have been employed. The idea of 
going in a small boat, rowing six oars, without a single morsel 
of anything to eat or drink, the distance of about fifty leagues, 
must convince the world that every other earthly consideration 
than that of serving his Country, was totally banished from 
his thoughts." Such preoccupation with one idea, and that 
idea so fine, brings back to us the old Nelson, who has found 
himself again amid the storm and stress of danger and of action, 
for which he was created. 

About midnight he reached the "Elephant," Avhere his flag 
was again hoisted ; but he did not escape unharmed from the 
exposure he had too carelessly undergone. " Since April 15," 
he wrote several weeks afterwards to Lady Hamilton, " I have 
been rapidly in a decline, but am now, thank God, I firmly 
believe, past all danger. At that time I rowed five hours in a 
bitter cold night. A cold struck me to the heart. On the 27th 
I had one of my terrible spasms of heart-stroke, which had 
near carried me off, and the severe disappointment of being 
kept in a situation where there can be nothing to do before 
August, almost killed me. From that time to the end of May 
I brought up what every one thought was my lungs, and I was 
emaciated more than you can conceive." 

The fleet proceeded in a leisurely manner toward Carlscrona, 
Nelson chafing and fretting, none the less for his illness, under 
the indecision and dilatoriness that continued to characterize 
Parker's movements. "My dear friend," he had written to 
Lady Hamilton, "we are very lazy. We Mediterranean 
people are not used to it." " Lord St. Vincent," he tells his 



496 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

brother, " will either take this late business up with a very 
high hand, or he will depress it ; but how they will manage 
about Sir H3^de I cannot guess. I am afraid much will be 
said about him in the public papers ; but not a word shall be 
drawn from me, for God knows they may make him Lord Copen- 
hagen if they please, it will not offend me." But now that 
Denmark has been quieted, he cannot understand nor tolerate 
the delay in going to Eevel, where the appearance of the fleet 
wovild checkmate, not only Russia, but all the allied squadrons ; 
for it would occupy an interior and commanding position 
between the detachments at Eevel, Cronstadt, and Carlscrona, 
in force superior to any one of them. " On the 19th of April," 
he afterwards wrote bitterly to St. Vincent, " we had eighteen 
ships of the line and a fair W' ind. Count Pahlen [the Russian 
Cabinet Minister] came and resided at Revel, evidently to 
endeavour to prevent any hostilities against the Russian fleet 
there, which was, I decidedly say, at our mercy. Nothing, if 
it had been right to make the attack, could have saved one ship 
of them in two hours after our entering the bay ; and to prevent 
their destruction. Sir Hyde Parker had a great latitude for 
asking for various things for the suspension of his orders. " 
That is, Parker having the fleet at his mercy could have 
exacted terms, just as Nelson himself had exacted them from 
Denmark when Copenhagen was laid open ; the advantage, 
indeed, was far greater, as the destruction of an organized 
force is a greater military evil than that of an unarmed town. 
This letter was written after Nelson had been to Revel, and 
seen the conditions on which he based his opinion. 

So far from taking this course, — which it may be said 
would have conformed to instructions from his Government 
then on their way, and issued after knowing Paul's death, — 
Parker appeared off Carlscrona on April 20th. Two days 
afterwards he received a letter from the Russian minister at 
Copenhagen, saying that the Emperor had ordered his fleet to 
abstain from all hostilities. Parker apparently forgot that he 
was first a naval officer, and only incidentally a diplomatist; 
for, instead of exacting guarantees which would have insured 
the military situation remaining unchanged until definite 
agreements had been reached, he returned to Kioge Bay, near 
Copenhagen, but within the Shallows, leaving the Revel 



THE FISCHER LETTER 497 

squadron untrammelled, either by force or pledge, free to go 
out when the ice allowed, and to join either the Swedes or its 
own main body. Accordingly, it did. come out a fortnight 
later, went to Cronstadt, and so escaped the British fleet. 

While on this cruise towards Carlscrona, Nelson became in- 
volved in a pen-and-ink controversy about Commodore Fischer, 
who had commanded the Danish line at the Battle of Copen- 
hagen, — one of two or three rare occasions which illustrate 
the vehemence and insolence that could be aroused in him 
when his vanity was touched, or when he conceived, his repu- 
tation to be assailed. Fischer, in his official report of the 
action, had comforted himself and his nation, as most beaten 
men do, by dwelling upon — and unquestionably exaggerating 
— the significance of certain incidents, eitlier actual, or 
imagined by the Danes ; for instance, that towards the end of 
the battle. Nelson's own ship had fired only single guns, and 
that two British ships had struck, — the latter being an error, 
and the former readily accounted for by the fact that the 
" Elephant" then had no enemy within easy range. What 
particularly stung Nelson, however, seems to have been the 
assertion that the British force was superior, and that his 
sending a flag of truce indicated the injary done his squadron. 
Some of his friends had thought, erroneously in the opinion 
of the author, that the flag was an unjustifiable ruse de guerre, 
which made him specially sensitive on this point. 

His retort, addressed to his Danish friend, Lindholm, was 
written and sent in such heat that it is somewhat incoherent 
in form, and more full of abuse than of argument, besides in- 
volving him in contradictions. That the British squadron was 
numerically superior in guns seems certain; it would have been 
even culpable, having ships enough, not to have employed them 
in any case, and especially when the attacking force had to come 
into action amid dangerous shoals, and against vessels already 
carefully placed and moored. In his official report he had 
stated that the " Bellona " and " Eussell " had grounded ; 
" but although not in the situation assigned them, yet so 
placed as to be of great service." In the present dispute he 
claimed that they should be left out of the reckoning, and he 
was at variance with the Danish accounts as to the effect of 
Riou's frigates. But such errors, he afterwards admitted to 

32 



498 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Lindholin, may creep into any official report, and to measure 
credit merely by counting guns is wholly illusory ; for, as he 
confessed, with exaggerated humility, some months later, " if 
any merit attaches itself to me, it was in combating the dangers 
of the shallows in defiance of the pilots." 

He chose, however, to consider that Fischer's letter had 
thrown ridicule upon his character, and he resented it in 
terms as violent as he afterwards used of the French admiral, 
Latouche Treville, who asserted that he had retired before a 
superior force ; as though Nelson, by any flight of imagina- 
tion, could have been suspected of over-caution. Fischer 
had twice shifted his broad pendant — that is, his own posi- 
tion — in the battle; therefore he was a coward. "In his 
letter he states that, after he quitted the Dannebrog, she long 
contested the battle. If so, more shame for him to quit so 
many brave fellows. Here was no manoeuvring : it was down- 
right fighting, and it was his duty to have shown an example 
of firmness becoming the high trust reposed in him." This 
was probably a just comment, but not a fair implication of 
cowardice. " He went in such a hurry, if he went before she 
struck, which but for his own declaration I can hardly be- 
lieve, that he forgot to take his broad pendant Avith him." 
This Liudholm showed was a mistake. "He seems to exult 
that I sent on shore a flag of truce. Men of his description, 
if they ever are victorious, know not the feeling of humanity. 
. . . 'Mv. Fischer's carcase was safe, and he regarded not the 
sacred call of humanity." This letter was sent to Lindholm, 
to be communicated to the Crown Prince ; for, had not 
Fischer addressed the latter as an eye-witness, Nelson " would 
have treated his official letter wdth the contempt it deserved." 
Lindholm kept it from Fischer, made a temj^erate reply de- 
fending the latter, and the subject there dropped. 

On the 25th of April the fleet was at anchor in Kioge Bay, 
and there remained until the 5th of May, when orders arrived 
relieving Parker, and placing Nelson in chief command. 
The latter was utterly dismayed. Side by side with the un- 
quenchable zeal for glory and for his Country's service had 
been running the equally unquenchable passion for Lady 
Hamilton ; and, with the noble impulses that bore him up 
in battle, sickness, and exposure, had mingled soft dreams of 



PARKER RELIEVED BY NELSON 499 

flight from the world, of days spent upon the sunny slopes 
of Sicily, on his estate of Bronte, amid scenes closely resem- 
bling those associated with his past delights, and with the 
life of the woman whom he loved." To this he several times 
alludes in the almost daily letters which he wrote her. But, 
whether to be realized there or in England, he panted for the 
charms of home which he had never known. '■' I am fixed," 
he tells her, " to live a country life, and to have many (I 
hope) years of comfort, which God knows, I never yet had 
— only moments of happiness," — a pathetic admission of the 
price he had paid for the glory which could not satisfy him, yet 
which, by the law of his being, he could not cease to crave. " I 
wish for happiness to be my reward, and not titles or money ; " 
and happiness means being with her whom he repeatedly calls 
Santa Emma, and his "guardian angel," — a fond imagining, 
the sincerity of which checks the ready smile, but elicits no 
tenderness for a delusion too gross for sympathy. 

Whatever sacrifices he might be ready to make for his 
country's service, he was not willing to give up all he held 
dear when the real occasion for his exceptional powers had 
passed away ; and the assurances that the service absolutely 
required his presence in the Baltic made no impression upon 
him. He knew better. " Had the command been given me 
in February," he said, "many lives would have been saved, 
and we should have been in a very different situation ; but 
the wiseheads at home know everything." Now it means 
expense and suffering, and nothing to do beyond the powers 
of an average ofiicer. "Any other man can as well look about 
him as Nelson." " Sir Thomas Troubridge," he complains, 
after enumerating his grievances, " had the nonsense to say, 
now I was a Commander-in-Chief I must be pleased. Does he 
take me for a greater fool than I am ? " It was indeed shav- 
ing pretty close to insult to send out a man like Nelson as 
second, when great work was in hand, and then, after he had 
done all his superior had permitted, and there was nothing 
left to do, to tell him that he was indispensable ; but to be con- 
gratulated upon the fact by a Lord of the Admiralty, which 
Troubridge then was, was rather too much. He could not refuse 
to accept the command, but he demanded his relief in terms 
which could not be disregarded. His health, he said, made him 



500 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

unequal to the service. For three weeks he could not leave his 
cabin. " The keen air of the North kills me." " I did not 
come to the Baltic with the design of dying a natural death." 

Parker had no sooner departed than iSTelsou made the signal 
for the fleet to weigh, and started at once for Kevel. He did 
not know whether or not the Russian ships were still there, 
and he felt that the change of sovereigns probably implied a 
radical change of policy ; but he understood, also, that the 
part of a commander-in-chief was to see that the military situ- 
ation was maintained, from day to day, as favorable as possible 
to his own country. He anticipated, therefore, by his per- 
sonal judgment, the instructions of the Cabinet, not to enter 
upon hostilities if certain conditions could be obtained, but to 
exact of the Russian Government, pending its decision, that the 
Revel ships should remain where they were. " My object," he 
said, writing the same day he took command, " ^oas to get at 
Revel before the frost broke up at Cronstadt, that the twelve 
sail of the line might be destroyed. I shall noio go there as a 
friend, hut the two fleets shall not form a junction, if not already 
accomplished, unless my orders permit it." For the same reason, 
he wrote to the Swedish admiral that he had no orders to abstain 
from hostilities if he met his fleet at sea. He hoped, therefore, 
that he would see the wisdom of remaining in port. 

His visit to Revel, consequently, was to wear the external 
appearance of a compliment to a sovereign whose friendly in- 
tentions were assumed. To give it that color, he took with 
him only twelve ships-of-the-line, leaving the others, with the 
small vessels of distinctly hostile character, bombs, fireships, 
etc., anchored off Bornholm Island, a Danish possession. The 
resolution to prevent a junction was contingent and concealed. 
On the 12th the squadron arrived in the outer bay of Revel, 
and a complimentary letter, announcing the purpose of his 
coming, was sent to St. Petersburg. Tiie next day he paid an 
official visit to the authorities, when his vanity and love of 
attention received fresh gratification. '' Except to you, my own 
friend, I should not mention it, 'tis so much like vanity ; but 
hundreds come to look at Nelson, ' tit at is him, that is him,' in 
short 'tis the same as in Italy and Germany, and I now feel 
that a good name is better than riches, not amongst our great 
folks in England: but it has its fine feelings to an honest 



VISITS REVEL WITH THE FLEET 501 

heart. All the Russians have taken it into their heads that I 
am like Suivaroff, Le jeune Suwarojf; " thus confirming the 
impression made upon Mrs. St. George at Dresden. 

On the 16th of May a letter arrived from Count Pahlen, the 
Russian minister. The Czar declined to see a compliment in 
the appearance in Russian waters of so formidable a force, 
commanded by a seaman whose name stood foremost, not 
merely for professional ability, but for sudden, resolute, and 
aggressive action. " Nelson's presence," Niebuhr had written, 
"leads us to tliink, judging of him by his past conduct, that 
a furious attack will be made upon our harbor ; " and he him- 
self had recorded with complacency that a Danish officer, visit- 
ing the " London," upon learning that he was with the fleet in the 
Kattegat, had said, " Is he here ? Then I suppose it is no joke, 
if he is come." " The Baltic folks will never fight me, if it is 
to be avoided." " The Emperor, my Master," wrote Pahlen, 
" does not consider this step compatible with the lively desire 
manifested by His Britannic Majesty, to reestablish the good 
intelligence so long existing between the two Monarchies. The 
only guarantee of the loyalty of your intentions that His Maj- 
esty can accept, is the prompt withdrawal of the fleet under 
your command, and no negotiation with your Court can take 
place, so long as a naval force is in sight of his ports." 

Nelson had of course recognized that the game was lost, 
as soon as he saw that the Russian fleet was gone. The con- 
ditions which had, mainly prompted his visit were changed, 
and the Russian Government was in a position to take a high 
tone, without fear of consequences. " After such an answer," 
he wrote indignantly to St. Vincent, <' I had no business here. 
Time will show ; but I do not believe he would have written 
such a letter, if the Russian fleet had been in Revel." "Lord 
Nelson received the letter a few minutes before dinner-time," 
wrote Stewart. " He appeared to be a good deal agitated by it, 
but said little, and did not return an immediate reply. During 
dinner, however, he left the table, and in less than a quarter of 
an hour sent for his secretary to peruse a letter which, in that 
short absence, he had composed. The signal for preparing to 
weigh was immediately made ; the answer above-mentioned 
was sent on shore; and his Lordship caused the fleet to weigh, 
and to stand as far to sea as was safe for that evening." 



502 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelson took hold of Pahlen's expression, that he had come 
"with his whole fleet" to ReveL Confining himself to that, 
he pointed out the mistake the minister had made, for he had 
brought "not one-seventh of his fleet in point of luimbers.-' 
He mentioned also the deference that he had paid to the Revel 
authorities. "My conduct, I feel, is so entirely different to 
what your Excellency has expressed in your letter, that I have 
only to regret, that my desire to pay a marked attention to 
His Imperial Majesty has been so entirely misunderstood. 
That being the case, 1 shall sail immediately into the Baltic." 
Retiring thus in good order, if defeated, he had the satisfac- 
tion of knowing that it was not his own blunder, bat the 
wretched dilatoriness of his predecessor, that had made the 
Czar, instead of the British admiral, master of the situation. 

Stopping for twenty-four hours at Bornholm on the way 
down, ISTeJson on the 24th anchored in Rostock Bay, on the 
German coast of the Baltic, and there awaited the relief i 
he confidently expected. He liad scarcely arrived when a 
second letter from Pahlen overtook him. The minister ex- 
pressed his regret for any misunderstanding that had arisen 
as to the purpose of his first visit, and continued, " I cannot 
give your excellency a more striking proof of the confidence 
which the Emperor my Master reposes in you, than by an- 
nouncing the effect produced by your letter of the IGth of 
this month. His Imperial Majesty has ordered the imme- 
diate raising of the embargo placed upon the English mer- 
chant ships." Nelson plumed himself greatly upon this result 
of his diplomacy. " Our diplomatic men are so slow. Lord 
St. Helens told me that he hoped in a month he should be 
able to tell me something decisive. Now, what can take two 
hours I cannot even guess, but Ministers must do something 
for their diamond boxes. I gained the unconditional release 
of our ships, which neither Ministers nor Sir Hyde Parker 
could accomplish, by showing my fleet. Then they became 
alarmed, begged I would go away, or it would be considered as 
warlike. On my complying, it pleased the Emperor and his 
ministers so much, that the whole of the British shipping were 
given up." There is nothing like the point of view ; but it must 
be admitted that Nelson extricated himself from an unpleasant 
position with great good temper and sound judgment. 



DAILY LIFE IN THE BALTIC 503 

He remained in his flagship between Eostock and Kioge 
Bay, until relieved by Vice-Admiral Pole on the 19th of 
June. Nothing of oificial importance occurred during these 
three weeks ; for the naval part of the Baltic entanglement 
was ended, as he had foreseen, A pleasant picture of his daily 
life on board the '' St. George" at this time has been preserved 
for us by Colonel Stewart : " His hour of rising Avas four or 
five o'clock, and of going to rest about ten; breakfast was 
never later than six, and generally nearer to five o'clock. A 
midshipman or two were always of the party ; and I have 
known him send daring the middle watch ^ to invite the little 
fellows to breakfast with him, when relieved. At table with 
them, he would enter into their boyish jokes, and be the most 
youthful of the party. At dinner he invariably had every 
officer of the ship in their turn, and was both a polite and 
hospitable host. The whole ordinary business of the fleet was 
invariably despatched, as it had been by Earl St. Vincent, 
before eight o'clock. The great command of time which Lord 
Nelson thus gave himself, and the alertness which this example 
imparted throughout the fleet, can only be understood by those 
who witnessed it, or Avho know the value of early hours. . . . 
He did not again land wdiilst in the Baltic ; his health was 
not good, and his mind was not at ease ; with him, mind and 
health invariably sympathized." 

While thus generally pleasant on board ship, he resolutely 
refused intercourse with the outside world when not compelled 
by duty. In this there appears to have been something self- 
imposed, in deference to Lady Hamilton. There are indica- 
tions that she felt, or feigned, some jealousy of his relations 
with others, especially with women, corresponding to the 
frenzied agitation he manifested at the association of her name 
with that of any other man, and especially with that of the 
then Prince of Wales. Whatever her real depth of attachment 
to him, her best hope for the future was in his constancy, and 
that he would eventually marry her ; for Sir William's death 
could not be far distant, and matters might otherwise favor 
the hope that both he and she cherished. Her approaching 
widowhood would in fact leave her, unless her husband's will 
was exceptionally generous, in a condition as precarious, her 
1 Miduiglit to four A. M. 



504 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

acquired tastes considered, as that from which her marriage 
had rescued her ; and her uneasiness would naturally arouse 
an uncertain and exacting temper as, in the old days at Naples, 
when Hamilton could not make up his mind. The condition 
of jM"elson's health furnished him au excuse for declining all 
civilities or calls, even from a reigning prince, on the ground 
that he was not well enough to go ashore and return them. 
Soon after this, however, lie was able to write Lady Hamilton 
that he was perfectly recovered. " As far as relates to health, 
I don't think I ever was stronger or in better health. It is 
odd, but after severe illness I feel much better." Thus he 
was, when definitely informed that his relief was on the way, 
" To find a proper successor," said Lord St. Vincent, when 
announcing the fact to him, " your lordship knows is no easy 
task; fori never saw the man in our profession, excepting 
yourself and Troubridge, who possessed the magic art of in- 
fusing the same spirit into others, which inspired their own 
actions ; exclusive of other talents and habits of business, not 
common to naval characters." " I was so overcome yesterday," 
wrote Nelson to Lady Hamilton, " with the good and happy 
news that came about my going home, that I believe I was in 
truth scarcely myself. The thoughts of going do me good, 
yet all night I was so restless that I could not sleep. It is 
nearly calm, therefore Admiral Pole cannot get on. If he was 
not to come, I believe it would kill me. I am ready to start 
the moment I have talked with him one hour." 

On tlie 19th of June Nelson left the Baltic in the brig "Kite," 
and on the 1st of July landed at Yarmouth. 

Note. — Since this work was first published, the author has learned 
that in the year 1847 her present Majesty authorized the grant of a 
naval medal to the survivors of naval engagements that had taken 
place between the years 1703 and 1840. Under this ordering, medals 
were issued for the Battle of Copenhagen. Although a gracious act 
in the government of the day, such a tardy recognition, when the 
most conspicuous actors were dead, scarcely invalidates, in the au- 
thor's opinion, the statement on page 489 that medals were not issued. 
This note is added, however, as necessary to a complete account of 
the matter. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Nelson commands the " Squadron on a PARxicaLAR Service," for 
THE Defence of the Coast of England against Invasion. — 
Signature of Preliminaries of Peace with France. 

July-October, 1801. Age, 43. 

BEFORE sailing for the Baltic, and tlirougliout his service 
in that sea, the longing for repose and for a lover's 
paradise had disputed with the love of glory for the empire 
in Nelson's heart, and signs were not wanting that the latter 
Avas making a doubtful, if not a losing, fight. Shortly before 
his departure for the North, he wrote to St. Vincent, "Al- 
though, I own, I have met with much more honours and 
rewards than ever my most sanguine ideas led me to expect, 
yet I am so circumstanced that probably this Expedition will 
be the last service ever performed by your obliged and 
affectionate friend." His old commander was naturally per- 
turbed at the thought that the illustrious career, which he 
had done so much to foster, was to have the ignoble termina- 
tion to be inferred from these words and the notorious facts. 
" Be assured, ray dear Lord," he replied, " that every iiuhlic ^ 
act of your life has been the subject of my admiration, which 
I should have sooner declared, but that I was appalled by 
the last sentence of your letter : for God's sake, do not suffer 
yourself to be carried away by any sudden impulse." 

During his absence, the uncertain deferment of his 
desires had worked together with the perverse indolence 
of Sir Hyde Parker, the fretting sight of opportunities wasted, 
the constant chafing against the curb, to keep both body and 
mind in perpetual unrest, to which the severe climate con- 
tributed by undermining his health. This unceasing discom- 
fort had given enhanced charm to his caressing dreams of 

1 These suggestive italics are in the letter as printed by Clark and 
M* Arthur, aud reproduced by Nicolas, 



606 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



reposeful happiness, soothed and stimulated by the com- 
panionship which he so far had found to fulfil all his power 
of admiration, and all his demands for sympathy. Eeleased 
at last, he landed in England confidently expecting to realize 
his hopes, only to find that they must again be postponed. 
Eeputation such as his bears its own penalty. There Avas 
no other man in whose name England could find the calm 
certainty of safety, which popular apprehension demanded 
in the new emergency, that had arisen while he was uphold- 
ing her cause in the northern seas. Nelson repined, but he 
submitted. Within four weeks his flag was flying again, and 
himself immersed in professional anxieties. 

War on the continent of Europe had ceased definitively with 
the treaty of Luneville, between France and Austria, signed 
February 9, 1801. Over four years were to elapse before it 
should recommence. But, as Great Britain Avas to be the 
first to take up arms again to resist the encroachments of 
Bonaparte, so now she was the last to consent to peace, eager 
as her people were to have it, Malta had fallen, the Armed 
Neutrality of the North had dissolved, the French occupation 
of Egypt was at its last gasp. Foiled in these three directions 
by the sea-power of Great Britain, unable, with all his manip- 
ulation of the prostrate continent, to inflict a deadly wound, 
Bonaparte now resorted to the threat of invasion, well aware 
that, under existing conditions, it could be but a threat, yet 
hoping that its influence upon a people accustomed to sleep 
securely might further his designs. But, though the en- 
chanter wove his spells to rouse the demon of fear, their one 
effect was to bring up once more, over against him, tlie 
defiant form of his arch-subverter. Both the Prime Minister, 
Addington, and the First Lord of the Admiralty assured 
Nelson that his presence in chai'ge of the dispositions for 
defence, and that only, could quiet the public mind. "I have 
seen Lord St. Vincent," he Avrote the former, "and submit to 
your and his partiality. Whilst my health Avill allow, I can 
only say, that every exertion of mine shall be used to merit 
the continuance of your esteem." St. Vincent, Avriting to him 
a fortnight later, avowed frankly the Aveight attachec^ to his 
very name by both friend and foe. " Our negotiation is 
drawing near its close, and must terminate one way or 



THREATENED INVASION OF ENGLAND 507 

another in a few clays, and, I need not add, how very impor- 
tant it is that the enemy should know that yoii are constantly 
opposed to him." 

The purpose of Bonaparte in 1801 is not to be gauged by 
the same measure as that of 1803-1805. In 1798 he had told 
the then government of France that to make a descent upon 
England, without beiug master of the sea, would be the boldest 
and most difficult operation ever attempted. Conditions had 
not changed since then, nor had he now the time or the money 
to embark in the extensive preparations, which afterwards 
gave assurance that he was in earnest in his threats. An 
adept in making false demonstrations, perfectly appreciative 
of the power of a great name, he counted upon his own 
renown, and his amazing achievement of the apparently 
impossible in the past, to overawe the imagination of a nation, 
whose will, rather than whose strength, he hoped to subdue. 
Boulogne and the small neighboring ports, whose nearness 
clearly indicated them as the only suitable base from which 
an invasion could start, were in that year in no state to receive 
the boats necessary to carry an army. This the British 
could see with their own eyes ; but who could be sure that the 
paper flotilla at Boulogne, like the paper Army of Reserve at 
Dijon a year before, had not elsewhere a substantial counter- 
part, whose sudden appearance might yet work a catastrophe 
as unexpected and total as that of Marengo ? And who more 
apt than Bonaparte to spread the impression that some such 
surprise was brewing ? "I can venture to assure you that no 
embarkation of troops can take place at Boulogne," wrote 
Nelson, immediately after his first reconnoissance ; but he says 
at the same time, " I have now more than ever reason to believe 
that the ports of Flushing and Flanders are much more likely 
places to embark men from, than Calais, Boulogne, or Dieppe ; 
for in Flanders we cannot tell by our eyes what means they 
have collected for carrying an army." " Great preparations 
at Ostend," he notes a week later; ''Augereau commands that 
part of the Army. I hope to let him feel the bottom of 
the Goodwin Sand." It was just this sort of apprehension, 
specific in direction, yet vague and elusive in details, that 
Bonaparte was skilled in disseminating. 

St. Vincent, and the Government generally, agreed with 



508 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelson's opinion. ** We are to look to Flanders for the great 
effort," wrote the Earl to him. Neither of them had, nor was 
it possible for clear-headed naval officers to have, any sub- 
stantial, rational, fear of a descent in force ; yet the vague 
possibility did, for the moment, impress even them, and the 
liability of the populace, and of the commercial interests, to 
panic, was a consideration not to be overlooked. Besides, in 
a certain Avay, there was no adequate preparation for resist- 
ance. The British Navy, indeed, was an overwhelming force 
as compared to the French ; but its hands were fully occupied, 
and the fleet Nelson had just left in the Baltic could not yet 
be recalled. It was, however, in purely defensive measures, iu 
the possession of a force similar to that by which the proposed 
attack was to be made, and iu dispositions analogous to 
coast defences, that the means were singularly defective, 
both in material and men. "Everything, my dear Lord," 
wrote Nelson, the day after he hoisted his flag at Sheerness, 
" must have a beginning, and we are literally at the founda- 
tion of our fabric of defence ; " but, he continues, reverting to 
his own and St. Vincent's clear and accurate military intui- 
tions, " I agree perfectly with you, that we must keep the 
enemy as far from our own coasts as possible, and be able to 
attack them the moment they come out of their ports." 

" Our first defence," he writes a fortnight later, showing the 
gradual maturing of the views whicli he, in common with St. 
Vincent, held with such illustrious firmness iu the succeeding 
years, " is close to the enemy's ports. When that is broke, 
others will come forth on our own coasts." It was in the 
latter that the unexpected anxieties of 1801 found the Gov- 
ernmeut deficient, and these it was to be Nelson's first care to 
organize and dispose. By the time his duties Avere completed, 
and the problems connected with them had been two months 
under his consideration, he had reached the conclusion which 
Napoleon also held, and upon Avhich he acted. " This boat 
business may be a part of a great plan of Invasion, but can 
never be the only one." From the first he had contemplated 
the possibility of the French fleets in Brest and elsewhere 
attempting diversions, such as Napoleon planned in support 
of his later great projects. "Although I feel confident that 
the fleets of the enemy will meet the same fate which has 



I 



I 



PLANS FOR DEFENDING LONDON 509 

always attended them, yet their sailing will facilitate the 
coming over of their flotilla, as they will naturally suppose our 
attention will be called only to the fleets/' 

What was feared in 1801 was not a grand military opera- 
tion, in the nature of an attempt at conquest, or, at the least, 
at injury so serious as to be disabling, but rather something 
in the nature of a great raid, of which the most probable 
object was the city of London, the chief commercial centre. 
It was upon this supposition that the instructions of the 
Admiralty to Nelson were framed, and upon this also the 
memorandum as to methods, submitted by him to it, on 
the 25th of July, 1801, " It is certainly proper to believe the 
French are coming to attack London." "I will suppose that 
40,000 men are destined for this attack, or rather surprise." 
His plan is given first in his own words, as due to a matter 
of so much importance ; and to them the writer appends a 
summary of the principal features, as understood by him. 
These are not always easily to be seen on the face of the 
paper, owing to the small time for its preparation, and the 
consequent haste — off-hand almost — with whicli it was 
drawn up, as is further indicated from the copy in the Admi- 
ralty being in his own writing. 



MEMORANDA BY LORD NELSON", ON THE DEFENCE OF THE 
THAMES, ETC. 

25th July, 1801. 
Besides the stationed Ships at the different jDosts between the 
North Foreland and Orfordness, as many Gun-vessels as can be 
spared from the very necessary protection of the Coast of Sussex and 
of Kent to the westward of Dover, should be collected, for this part 
of the Coast must be seriously attended to ; for supposing London 
the object of surprise, I am of opinion that the Enemy's object ought 
to be the getting on shore as speedily as possible, for the dangers of a 
navigation of forty-eight hours, appear to me to be an insurmountable 
objection to the rowing from Boulogne to the Coast of Essex. It is 
therefore inost probable (for it is certainly proper to believe the 
French are coming to attack London, and therefore to be prepared) 
that from Boulogne, Calais, and even Havre, that the enemy will try 
and land in Sussex, or the lower part of Kent, and from Dunkirk, 
Ostend, and the other Ports of Flanders, to land on the Coast of Essex 



510 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

or Suffolk; for I own myself of opinion that, the object being to get 
on shore somewhere within 100 miles of London, as speedily as pos- 
sible, that tlie Flats in the month of the Thames will not be the onl}' 
place necessary to attend to ; added to this, the Enemy will create a 
powerful diversion by the sailing of the Combined Fleet, and the 
either sailing, or creating such an appearance of sailing, of the Dutch 
Fleet, as will prevent Admiral Dickson from sending anything from 
off the great Dutch Ports, whilst the smaller Ports will s-pew forth its 
Flotilla, — viz., Flushing, &c. &c. It must be pretty well ascertained 
what number of small Vessels are in each Port. 

I will suppose that 40,000 men are destined for this attack, or 
rather surprise, of London; 20,000 will land on the west side of 
Dover, sixty or seventy miles from London, and the same number on 
the east side : they are too knowing to let us have but one X'oint of 
alarm for London. Supposing 200 craft, or 250, collected at Boulogne 
&c., they are supposed equal to carry 20,000 men. Tn very calm 
weather, they might row over, supposing no impediment, in twelve 
hours ; at the same instant, by telegraph, the same number of troops 
would be rowed out of Dunkirk, Ostend, Sec. &c. These are the two 
great objects to attend to from Dover and the Downs, aiid perhaps 
one of the small Ports to the westward. Boulogne (which I call the 
central point of the Western attack) must be attended to. If it is 
calm when the Enemy row out, all our Vessels and Boats appointed 
to watch them, must get into the Channel, and meet them as soon as 
possible : if not strong enough for the attack, they must watch, and 
keep them company till a favourable opportunity offers. If a breeze 
springs up, our Ships are to deal destruction; no delicacy can be 
observed on this great occasion. But should it remain calm, and our 
Flotilla not fancy itself strong enough to attack the Enemy on their 
passage, the moment that they begin to touch our shore, strong or 
weak, our Flotilla of Boats must attack as much of the Enemy's 
Flotilla as they are able — say only one-half or two-thirds; it will 
create a most powerful diversion, for the bows of our Flotilla will be 
opposed to their unarmed sterns, and the courage of Britons will 
never, I believe, allow one Frenchman to leave the beach. A great 
number of Deal and Dover Boats to be on board our vessels off the 
Port of Boidogne, to give notice of the direction taken by the Enemj\ 
If it is calm, Vessels in the Channel can make signals of intelligence 
to our shores, from the North Foreland to Orfordness, and even as 
far as Solebay, not an improbable place, about seventy or eighty 
miles from London. 

A Flotilla to be kept near IMargate and Ramsgate, to consist of 
Gun-boats and Flat-boats; another Squadron to be stationed near the 
centre, between Orfordness and !N"ortli Foreland, and the third in 



PLANS FOR DEFENDING LONDON 511 

Hoseley Bay.i The Floating Batteiies are stationed in all proper 
positions for defending the different Channels, and the smaller Ves- 
sels will always have a resort in the support of the stationed ships. 
The moment of the Enemy's movement from Boulogne, is to be con- 
sidered as the movement of the Enemy from Dunkirk. Supposing it 
calm, the Flotillas are to be rowed, and the heavy ones towed, (except 
the stationed Ships) , those near Mai'gate, three or four leagiies to the 
north of the North Foreland ; those from Hoseley Bay, a little 
approaching the Centre Division, but always keeping an eye towards 
Solebay ; the Centre Division to advance half-way between the two. 
The more fast Rowing boats, called Thames Galleys, which can be 
procured the better, to carry orders, information, &c. &c. 

Whenever the Enemy's Flotilla can be seen, our Divisions are 
to unite, but not intermix, and to be ready to execute such orders as 
may be deemed necessary, or as the indispensable circumstances may 
require. For this purpose, men of such confidence in each other 
should be looked for, that (as far as human foresight can go,) no 
little jealousy may creep into any man's mind, but to be all animated 
with the same desire of preventing the descent of the Enemy on our 
Coasts. Stationary Floating Batteries are not, from any apparent 
advantage, to be moved, for the tide may prevent their resuming the 
very important stations assigned them ; they are on no account to be 
supposed neglected, even should the Enemy surround them, for they 
may rely on support, and reflect that perhaps their gallant conduct 
may prevent the mischievous designs of the Enemy. Whatever 
plans maj'- be adopted, the moment the Enemy touch our Coast, be it 
where it may, they are to be attacked by every man afloat and on 
shore: this must be pei-fectly understood. Never fear the event. The 
Flat Boats can probably be manned (partly, at least,) with the Sea 
Fencibles, (the numbers or fixed places of whom I am entirely igno- 
rant of,) but the Flat Boats they may man to be in grand and sub- 
divisions, commanded by their own Captains and Lieutenants, as far 
as is possible. The number of Flat Boats is unknown to me, as also 
the other means of defence in Small Craft ; but I am clearly of opinion 
that a proportion of the small force should be kept to watch the Fiat- 
Boats from Boulogne, and the others in the way I 'have presumed to 
suggest. These are offered as merely the rude ideas of the moment, 
and are only meant as a Sea plan of defence for the City of London ; but 
I believe other parts may likewise be menaced, if the Brest fleet, and 
those from Rochfort and Holland jiut to sea ; although I feel confi- 
dent that the Fleets of tlie Enemy will meet the same fate which has 
always attended them, yet their sailing will facilitate the coming over 
of their Flotilla, as they will naturally suppose our attention will be 
called only to the Fleets. 

1 HoUesley Bay. 



512 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Coming by water, the expectation seems to have been that 
the enemy might proceed up the river, or to a landing on 
some of the flats at the mouth of the Thames. Nelson says 
expressly that he does not think those alone are the points to 
be guarded ; but he characterizes his paper as being " only 
meant as a sea plan of defence for the city of London," and 
the suggestion already noticed, that the enemy's fleet will 
support the attack by diversions, is merely mentioned casu- 
ally. London being the supposed object, and the Thames the 
highway, the purely defensive force is to be concentrated 
there ; the Channel coasts, though not excluded, are secondary. 
'•As many gun-vessels as can be spared from the very necessary 
protection of the coast of Sussex, and of Kent to the westward 
of Dover, should be collected between the North Foreland 
and Orfordness, for this part of the coast must be seriously 
attended to." 

The attack is expected in this quarter, because from Elanders 
and Flushing it is the most accessible. The object, Nelson 
thinks, will be to get on shore as speedily as possible, and 
therefore somewhere within one hundred miles of London. 
Anywhere from the westward of Dover round to Solebay — 
"not an improbable place " — must be looked upon as a pos- 
sible landing. If there are forty thousand men coming, he 
regards it as certain that they will come in two principal 
bodies, of twenty thousand each — " they are too knowing to 
let us have but one point of alarm for London." " From Bou- 
logne, Calais, and even Havre, the eiiemy will try and land in 
Sussex, or the lower part of Kent; and from Dunkirk, Ostend, 
and the other ports of Flanders, to land on the coast of Essex 
or Suffolk." "In very calm weather, they might row over 
[from Boulogne], supposing no impediment, in twelve hours; 
at the same instant, by telegraph, the same number of troops 
would be rowed out of Dunkirk, Osteud, &g. &c." " Added to 
this, the enemy will create a powerful diversion by the sailing 
of the combined fleet, and the either sailing, or creating siich 
an appearance of sailing, of the Dutch fleet, as will prevent 
Admiral Dickson [commander-in-chief in the North Sea] from 
sending anything from off the great Dutch ports, whilst 
the smaller ports will spew forth its flotilla — viz, Flushing 
&c. &c." 



PLANS FOR DEFENDING LONDON 513 

To frustrate that part of this combined effort which is sup- 
posed to be directed against the Channel coast, Nelson pro- 
poses that, " if it is calm when the enemy row out, all our 
vessels and boats appointed to watch them, must get into the 
Channel, and meet them as soon as possible ; if not strong 
enough for the attack, they must watch, and keep them com- 
pany till a favourable opportunity offers. . . . Should it re- 
main calm," so tliat the cruising ships cannot assist, " the mo- 
ment that they begin to touch our shore, strong or weak, our 
flotilla of boats must attack as much of the enemy's flotilla as 
they are able — say only one-half or two-thirds — it will create 
a most powerful diversion, for the bows of our flotilla will be 
opposed to their unarmed sterns." 

The dispositions to defend the entrance of the Thames, 
being considered the more important, are the more minute. 
Blockships are stationed in the principal channels, as floating 
fortifications, commanding absolutely the water around them, 
and forming strong points of support for the flotilla. It is 
sagaciously ordered that these " are not, from any apparent 
advantage, to be moved, for the tide may prevent their re- 
suming the very important stations assigned them." Nelson 
was evidently alive to that advantage in permanent works, 
which puts it out of the power of panic to stampede them ; 
tide is not the only factor that prevents retrieving a false step. 
The eastern flotilla is organized into three bodies, the right 
wing being near Margate, the left in Hollesley Bay near Har- 
wich, the centre, vaguely, between Orfordness and the North 
Foreland. When the alarm is given, they are to draw together 
towards the centre, but not to emphasize their movement suffi- 
ciently to uncover either flank, until the enemy's flotilla can 
be seen ; then they are '' to unite, but not intermix." 

To both divisions — that in the Channel and that on the 
East Coast — the commander-in-chief, in concluding, renews 
his charge, with one of those " Nelson touches " which elec- 
trified his followers : " Whatever plans may be adopted, the 
moment the enemy touch our coast, be it where it may, they 
are to be attacked by every man afloat and on shore : this 
must be perfectly understood. Never fear the event. ^^ 

This plan for the defence of London against an attack by 
surprise, drawn up by Nelson on the spur of the moment, was 

33 



514 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

based simply upon his general ideas, and without specific 
information yet as to either the character or extent of the 
enemy's preparations, or of the means of resistance available 
on his own side. It has, therefore, something of an abstract 
character, embodying broad views unmodified by special cir- 
cumstances, and possessing, consequently, a somewhat peculiar 
value in indicating the tendency of iSTelson's military concep- 
tions. He assumes, implicitly, a certain freedom of move- 
ment on the part of the two opponents, unrestricted by the 
friction and uncertainty which in practice fetter action; and 
the use which, under these conditions, he imagines either will 
make of his powers, may not unfairly be assumed to show 
what he thought the correct course in such a general case. 

Prominent among his ideas, and continuous in all his specu- 
lations as to the movements of an enemy, from 1795 onward, 
is the certainty that, for the sake of diversion, Bonaparte will 
divide his force into two great equal fragments, which may 
land at points so far apart, and separated by such serious 
obstacles, as were Solebay and Dover. Those who will be at 
the trouble to recall his guesses as to the future movements 
of the French in the Riviera, Piedmont, and Tuscany, in 1795 
.and 1796, as well as his own propositions to the Austrians at 
the same period, will recognize here the recurrence, unchas- 
tened by experience or thought, of a theory of warfare it is 
almost impossible to approve. That Bonaparte, — supposed 
to be master of his first movements, — if he meant to land in 
person at Dover, would put half his army ashore at Solebay, 
is as incredible as that he would have landed one half at 
Leghorn, meaning to act with the other from the Eiviera. If 
this criticism be sound, it would show that Kelson, genius as 
he was, suffered from the lack of that study which reinforces 
its own conclusions by the experience of others; and that his 
experience, resting upon service in a navy so superior in 
quality to its enemies, that great inferiority in nu.mber or 
position could be accepted, had not supplied the necessary 
corrective to an ill-conceived readiness to sub-divide. 

The resultant error is clearly traceable, in the author's 
opinion, in his dispositions at Copenhagen, and in a general 
tendency to allow himself too narrow a margin, based upon an 
under-valuation of the enemy not far removed from contempt. 



PLANS FOR COAST DEFENCE 515 

It was most fortunate for him, in the Baltic, that Parker in- 
creased to twelve the detachment he himself had fixed at ten. 
The last utterances of his life, however, show a distinct ad- 
vance and ripening of the judgment, without the slightest 
decrease of the heroic resolution that so characterized him. 
" I have twenty-three sail with me," he wrote a fortnight 
before Trafalgar, " and should they come out I will imme- 
diately bring them to battle ; . . . but I am very, very, very 
anxious for the arrival of the force which is intended. It is, 
as Mr. Pitt knows, annihilation that the country wants, and 
not merely a splendid victory of twenty-three to thirty-six. 
Numbers only can annihilate." 

The assumption that Bonaparte's plan would be such as he 
mentioned, naturally controlled Nelson in the dispositions he 
sketched for the local defence of the shore lines. The inva- 
sion being in two bodies, the defence was to be in two bodies 
also; nor is there any suggestion of a possibility that these 
two might be united against one of the enemy's. The whole 
scheme is dual ; yet, although the chance of either division 
of the British being largely inferior to the enemy opposed to 
it is recognized, the adoption of a central position, or concentra- 
tion upon either of the enemy's flotillas, apparently is not 
contemplated. Such uncertainty of touch, Avhen not corrected 
by training, is the natural characteristic of a defence essen- 
tially passive; that is, of a defence which proposes to await 
the approach of the enemy to its own frontier, be that land 
or water. Yet it scarcely could have failed soon to occur to 
men of Nelson's and St. Vincent's martial capacities, that a 
different disposition, which would clearly enable them to 
unite and intercept either one of the enemy's divisions, must 
wreck the entire project ; for the other twenty thousand men 
alone could not do serious or lasting injury. The mere tak- 
ing a position favorable to such concentration would be an 
adequate check. The trouble for them undoubtedly was that 
which overloads, and so nullifies, all schemes for coast defence 
resting upon popular outcry, which demands outward and 
visible protection for every point, and assurance that people 
at war shall be guarded, not only against broken bones, but 
against even scratches of the skin. 

This uneducated and weak idea, that protection is only 



516 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

adequate when co-extensive with the frontier line threatened, 
finds its natural outcome in a system of defence by very small 
vessels, in great numbers, capable of minute subdivision and 
wide dispersal, to which an equal tonnage locked up in larger 
ships cannot be subjected. Although St. Vincent was at the 
head of the Admiralty which in 1801 ordered that Nelson 
should first organize such a flotilla, and only after that pro- 
ceed to offensive measures, the results of his experience now 
were to form — or at the least to confirm in him — the con- 
clusion which he enunciated, and to which he persistently 
held, during the later truly formidable preparations of Na- 
poleon. " Our great reliance is on the vigilance and activity 
of our cruisers at sea, any reduction in the number of which, 
by applying them to guard our ports, inlets, and beaches, 
would in my judgment tend to our destruction." Very 
strangely, so far as the author's opinion goes. Nelson after- 
wards expressed an apparently contrary view, and sustained 
Mr. Pitt in his attack upon St. Vincent's administration on 
this very point ; an attack, in its tendency and in the moment 
chosen, among the most dangerous to his country ever at- 
tempted by a great and sagacious statesman. Nelson, how- 
ever, writing in May, 1804, says : " I had wrote a memoir, 
many months ago, upon the propriety of a flotilla. I had that 
command at the end of the last war, and I know the necessity 
of it, even had you, and which you ought to have, thirty or 
forty sail of the line in the Downs and North Sea, besides 
frigates &c. ; but having failed so entirely in submitting my 
mind upon three points I was disheartened." This Memoir 
has not been preserved, but it will be noticed that, in express- 
ing his difference from St. Vincent in the words quoted, he 
assumes, what did not at any time exist, thirty or forty sail- 
of-the-line for the North Sea and the Downs. St. Vincent's 
stand Avas taken on the position that the flotilla could not be 
manned without diminishing the cruisers in commission, which 
were far short of the ideal number named by Nelson. It may 
be believed, or at least hoped, that if forced to choose between 
the two, as St. Vincent was, his choice would have been that 
of the great Earl. It seems clear, however, that in 1804 he 
believed it possible that the Army of Invasion miffht get as 
far as the shores of England — a question which has been 



HIS MILITARY CONCEPTIONS 517 

much argued. " I am very uneasy," he then wrote to Lady 
Hamilton, " at your and Horatia being on the coast : for you 
cannot move, if the French make the attempt." 

Whatever weight may be attributed to this criticism on 
Nelson's hastily sketched scheme, there can scarcely be any 
discord in the note of admiration for the fire that begins to 
glow, the instant he in thought draws near the enemy. There, 
assuredly, is no uncertain sound. They must be met as soon 
as possible ; if not strong enough to attack, they must be 
watched, and company kept, till a favorable opportunity oifers. 
If none occur till they draw near the beach, then, " Whatever 
plans may be adopted, the moment they touch our coast, be 
it where it may, they are to be attacked by every man afloat 
and on shore : this must be perfectly understood. Never fear 
the event." The resolution shown by such words is not born 
of carelessness ; and the man who approaches his work in 
their spirit will wring success out of many mistakes of cal- 
culation — unless indeed he stumble on an enemy of equal 
determination. The insistence upon keeping the enemy under 
observation, " keeping company " with them, however superior 
in numbers, may also be profitably noted. This inspired his 
whole purpose, four years later, in the pursuit of the French 
to the West Indies — if the odds are too great for immediate 
attack, " We won't part without a battle." It was the failure 
to hold the same principle of action, applicable to such diverse 
cases, that ruined Calder in the same campaign. 

With the general views that have been outlined, iSTelson 
hastened to his task. His commission for the new service 
was dated Jul}'' 24, three weeks after his return from the 
Baltic. On the 25th he presented the memorandum of oper- 
ations which has been discussed, on the 26th the Admiralty 
issued their instructions, and on the 2Tth he hoisted his flag 
upon the *' Unite" frigate at Sheerness. "1 shall go on 
board this day," he said, "in order to show we must all get 
to our posts as speedily as possible." His orders, after men- 
tioning the general reason for creating the "Squadron on a 
Particular Service," as his command was officially styled, 
designated the limits of his charge, coastwise, as from Orford- 
ness, on the Suffolk shore, round to Beachy Head, on the 
Channel. On the enemy's side of the water, it extended from 



518 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

end to end of the line of ports from which the especial danger 
of an invasion by troops might be supposed to issue — from 
Dieppe to Ostend ; but the mouth of the Scheldt was im- 
plicitly included. 

The district thus assigned to him was taken out of the 
commands hitherto held by some very reputable admirals, 
senior to himself, who otherwise retained their previous 
charges, surrounding and touching his own ; while at the 
Scheldt he trenched closely upon the province of the com- 
mander-in-chief in the North Sea. Such circumstances are 
extremely liable to cause friction and bad blood, and St. Vin- 
cent, who with all his despotism was keenly alive to the just 
susceptibilities of meritorious officers, was very careful to 
explain to them that he had with the greatest reluctance 
yielded to the necessity of combining the preparations for 
defence under a single flag-officer, who should have no other 
care. The innate tact, courtesy, and thoughtful consideration 
which distinguished Nelson, when in normal conditions, re- 
moved all other misunderstandings. " The delicacy you have 
always shown to senior officers," wrote St. Vincent to him, 
" is a sure presage of your avoiding by every means in your 
power to give umbrage to Admiral Dickson, who seems dis- 
posed to judge favourably of the intentions of us all : it is, in 
truth, the most difficult card we have to play." " Happy 
should I be," he said at another time, ''to place the whole 
of our offensive and defensive war under your auspices, but 
you are well aware of the difficulties on that head." From 
first to last there is no trace of a serious jar, and Nelson's 
instructions to his subordinates were such as to obviate the 
probability of any. " I feel myself, my dear Lord," he wrote 
St. Vincent, relative to a projected undertaking on the Dutch 
coast, "as anxious to get a medal, or a step in the peerage 
as if I had never got either. If I succeeded, and burnt the 
Dutch fleet, probably medals and an earldom. I must have 
had every desire to try the matter, regardless of the feelings 
of others ; but I should not have been your Nelson, that 
wants not to take honours or rewards from any man ; and if 
ever I feel great, it is, my dear Lord, in never having, in 
thought, word, or deed, robbed any man of his fair fame." 

He was accompanied from London by a young commander, 



I 



HIS TACT AND ACTIVITY 519 

Edward Parker, who seems first to have become known to 
him in the Baltic, and who now acted as an additional aide. 
The latter was filled with the admiration, felt by most of 
those thrown into contact with Nelson, for the rapidity with 
which he transacted business, and set all about him in move- 
ment. " He is the cleverest and quickest man, and the most 
zealous in the world. In the short time we were in Sheer- 
ness, he regulated and gave orders for thirty of the ships 
under liis command, made every one pleased, filled them with 
emulation, and set them all on the qui vive." In forty-eight 
hours he was off again for the Downs, by land, having to 
make some inquiries on the way as to the organization, and 
readiness to serve, of the Sea Feucibles, a large body of 
naval reserves, who were exempt from impressment upon the 
understanding that they would come forward for coast defence, 
in case of threatened invasion. Concerning their dispositions 
he received fairly flattering assurances, which in the event 
were not realized. If the men were certified that they would 
not be detained after the danger was over, it was said, they 
certainly would go on board. " This service, my dear Lord," 
he wrote to St. Vincent, " above all others, would be terrible 
for me : to get up and harangue like a recruiting sergeant ; 
but as I am come forth, I feel that I ought to do this disagree- 
able service as well as any other, if judged necessary." 

Three days more, and he was off Boulogne in a frigate with 
some bomb-vessels. The French admiral, Latouche Treville, 
had moored in front of the pier a line of gun-vessels, twenty- 
four in number, fastened together from end to end. At these, 
and at the shipping in the small port, some bombs were 
thrown. Not much injury was done on either side. Pre- 
vented by an easterly wind from going on to Flushing, as he 
had intended, Nelson returned to Margate on the 6th of 
August, issued a proclamation to the Fencibles, assuring them 
that the French undoubtedly intended an invasion, that their 
services were absolutely required at once on board the defence- 
ships, and that they could rely upon being returned to their 
homes as soon as the danger was over. Out of twenty-six 
hundred, only three hundred and eighty-five volunteered to 
this urgent call. " They are no more willing to give up their 
occupations than their superiors," wrote Nelson, with charac- 



520 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

teristically shrewd insight into a frame of mind wholly alien 
to his own self-sacrificing love of Country and of glory. 

Hurrying from station to station, on the shores, and in the 
channels of the Thames, he was on the 12th of August back at 
Margate, evidently disappointed in the prospects for coast- 
defence, and more and more inclining to the deep-sea cruising, 
and to action on the enemy's coast, recommended by the Ad- 
miralty, and consonant to his own temper, always disdainful 
of mere defensive measures. '' Our active force is perfect," 
he wrote to St. Vincent, '' and possesses so much zeal that I 
only want to catch that Buonaparte on the water." He has 
satisfied himself that the French preparations were greatly 
exaggerated ; Boulogne in fact could not harbor the needed 
vessels, unless enlarged, as afterwards by Napoleon. "Where 
is our invasion to come from ? The time is gone." Never- 
theless, he favors an attack of some sort, suggests an expedi- 
tion against Flushing, with five thousand troops, and proposes 
a consultation. St. Vincent replied that he did not believe in 
consultations, and had always avoided'them. "I disapprove 
of unnecessary consultations as much as any man," retorted 
Nelson, ''yet being close to the Admiralty, I should not feel 
myself justified in risking our ships through the channels of 
Flushing without buoys and pilots, without a consultation 
with such men as your Lordship, and also I believe you would 
think an order absolutely necessary." '' Lord St. Vincent tells 
me he hates councils," he writes rather sorely to Addington. 
" So do I between military men ; for if a man consults 
whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, 
it is certain that his ojnnion is against fighting j but that is not 
the case at j^resent, and I own I do want good council. 
Lord St. Vincent is for keeping the enemy closely blockaded ; 
but I see they get alongshore inside their sand banks, and 
under their guns, which line the coast of France. Lord Hood 
is for keeping our squadrons of defence stationary on our own 
shore (except light cutters to give information of every move- 
ment of the enemy). . . . When men of such good sense, such 
great sea-officers, differ so widely, is it not natural that I 
should wish the mode of defence to be well arranged by the 
mature consideration of men of judgment?" 

Meanwhile he had again gone off Boulogne, and directed 



BOAT ATTACK OFF BOULOGNE 521 

an attack in boats upon the line of vessels moored outside. 
He took great care in the arrangements for this hazardous 
expedition, giving personal supervision to all details. '' As 
you may believe, my dear Emma," he wrote to her who had 
his closest confidence, " my mind feels at what is going for- 
ward this night ; it is one thing to order and arrange an 
attack, and another to execute it ; but I assure you I have 
taken much more precaution for others, than if I was to go 
myself — then my mind would be perfectly at ease." He 
professed, and probably felt, entire confidence in the result. 
Fifty-seven boats were detailed for the attack. They were 
in four divisions, each under a commander ; Edward Parker 
having one. Each division was to advance in two columns, 
the boats of which were secured one to another by tow-ropes ; 
a precaution invaluable to keep them together, though render- 
ing progress slower. The points in the enemy's line which 
each division was to make for were clearly specified, and 
special boats told off and fitted to tow out any vessels that 
were captured. Simultaneous with this onslaught, a division 
of howitzer flat-boats was to throw shot into the port. 

At half-past eleven on the night of August 15th, the boats, 
which had assembled alongside the flag-frigate "Medusa," 
shoved off together ; but the distance which they had to pull, 
with the strong, uncertain currents, separated them; and, as 
so often happens in concerted movements, attacks intended 
to be simultaneous were made disconnectedly, while the French 
were fully prepared. The first division of the British arrived 
at half-past twelve, and after a desperate struggle was beaten 
off, Commander Parker being mortally wounded. Two other 
divisions came up later, while the fourth lost its Avay alto- 
gether. The affair was an entire failure, except so far as to 
show that the enemy would be met on their own shores, 
rather than on those of Great Britain. The British loss was 
forty-four killed, and one hundred and twenty-eight wounded. 

Nelson returned to the Downs, bitterly grieved, bat not 
greatly discouraged. The mishap, he said, was due to the 
boats not arriving at the same moment ; and that, he knew, 
was caused by conditions of currents, which would ever pre- 
vent the dull flat-boats of the enemy moving in a concert that 
the cutters of ships of war had not attained. " The craft 



522 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which I have seen," he wrote, " I do not think it possible to 
roiv to England ; and sail they cannot." As yet, however, he 
had not visited Flushing, and he felt it necessary to satisfy 
himself on that point. On the 24th of August, taking some 
pilots with him, he went across and inspected the ground, 
where the officer in charge of the British observing squadron 
was confident something might be effected. Nelson, however, 
decided otherwise. '' I cannot but admire Captain Owen's 
zeal in his anxious desire to get at the enemy, but I am afraid 
it has made him overleap sand-banks and tides, and laid him 
aboard the enemy. I could join most heartily in his desire ; 
but we cannot do impossibilities, and I am as little used to 
find out the impossibles as most folks ; and I think I can 
discriminate between the impracticable and the fair prospect 
of success." By the 27th of August he had returned to the 
Downs, where, with a brief and unimportant intermission, he 
remained until the cessation of hostilities with France in 
October. 

Satisfied that invasion was, for that year at least, an empty 
menace, Nelson fell again into the tone of angry and fretful 
complaint which was so conspicuous in the last weeks of his 
stay in the Baltic. To borrow the words of a French admirer, 
" He filled the Admiralty with his caprices and Europe with 
his fame." Almost from his first contact with this duty, it 
had been distasteful to him. " There is nothing to be done 
on the great scale," he said. "I own, my dear Lord," he told 
St. Vincent, " that this boat warfare is not exactly congenial 
to my feelings, and I find I get laughed at for my puny mode 
of attack." As usual, he threw himself with all his might 
into what he had to do, but the inward friction remained. 
" Whilst I serve, I will do it actively, and to the very best of 
my abilities. I have all night had a fever, which is very 
little abated this morning; my mind carries me beyond my 
strength, and will do me up ; but such is my nature. I require 
nursing like a child." 

That he was far from well is as unquestionable as that his 
distemper proceeded largely from his mind, if it did not 
originate there. " Our separation is terrible," he writes to 
Lady Hamilton ; " my heart is ready to flow out of my eyes. 
I am not unwell, but I am very low. I can only account for 



JEALOUSY OF TROUBRIBGE 523 

it by my absence from all I hold dear in this world." From 
the first he had told St. Vincent that he could not stay longer 
than September 14th, that it was beyond his strength to stand 
the equinoctial weather. The veteran seaman showed towards 
him the same delicate consideration that he always had, using 
the flattering urgency which Nelson himself knew so well 
how to employ, in eliciting the hearty co-operation of others. 
" The public mind is so much tranquillised by your being at 
your post, it is extremely desirable that you should continue 
there : in this opinion all His Majesty's servants, with Sir 
Thomas Troubridge, agree. Let me entreat your Lordship to 
persevere in the measures you are so advantageously em- 
ployed in, and give up, at least for the present, your inten- 
tion of returning to town, which would have the worst 
possible effect at this critical juncture. The dispositions you 
have made, and are making, appear to us all as the most 
judicious possible." " I hope you will not relinquish your 
situation at a moment when the services of every man are 
called for by the circumstances the Country is placed in, so 
imperiously that, upon reflection, I persuade myself you will 
think as I, and every friend you have, do on this subject." 
Nelson admitted, in a calmer moment, that "although my 
whole soul is devoted to get rid of this command, yet I do 
not blame the Earl for wishing to keep me here a little 
longer." " Pray take care of your health," the latter says 
again, " than which nothing is of so much consequence to the 
Country at large, more particularly so to your very affectionate 
St. Vincent." " Your health is so precious at all times, more 
particularly so at this crisis." 

St, Vincent tried in vain to conjure with the once beloved 
name of Troubridge, whom Nelson used to style the "Non- 
pareil," whose merits he had been never weary of extolling, 
and whose cause he had pleaded so vehemently, when the 
accident of his ship's grounding deprived him of his share in 
the Battle of the Nile. From the moment that he was chosen 
by St. Vincent, who called him the ablest adviser and best 
executive officer in the British Navy, to assist in the adminis- 
tration of the Admiralty, Nelson began to view him jealously. 
" Our friend Troubridge is to be a Lord of the Admiralty, and 
I have a sharp eye, and almost think I see it. No, poor 



524 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

fellow, I hope I do him injustice ; he cannot surely forget my 
kindness to him." But when the single eye has become 
double, suspicion thrives, and when tortured by his desire to 
return to Lady Hamilton, Nelson saw in every obstacle and 
every delay the secret hand of Troubridge. " I believe it is 
all the plan of Troubridge," he wrote in one such instance, 
"but I have wrote both him and the Earl my mind." To 
St. Vincent, habit and professional admiration enabled him 
to submit, if grudgingly, and with constant complaints to 
his confidante ; but Troubridge, though now one of the Board 
that issued his orders, was his inferior in grade, and he re- 
sented the imagined condition of being baffled in his wishes 
by a junior. The latter, quick-tempered and rough of speech, 
but true as his sword, to use St. Vincent's simile, must have 
found himself put to it to uphold the respect due to his 
present position, without wronging the affection and rever- 
ence which he undoubtedly felt for his old comrade, and 
which iu the past he had shown by the moral courage that 
even ventured to utter a remonstrance, against the infatuation 
that threatened to stain his professional honor. 

Such straining of personal relations constantly accompanies 
accession to office ; many are the friendships, if they can be 
called such, which cannot endure the experience that official 
action may not always be controlled by them. If such is to be 
noted in Nelson, it is because he was no exception to the com- 
mon rule, and it is sad that a man so great should not in this 
have been greater than he was. St. Vincent felt it necessary 
to tell him, with reference to the difficulty of granting some 
requests for promotion, " Encompassed as I am by applications 
and presumptuous claims, I have nothing for it but to act upon 
the defensive, as your Lordship will be compelled to do, when- 
ever you are placed in the situation I at present fill." This 
Nelson contents himself with quoting; but of Troubridge he 
says : " Troubridge has so completely prevented my mention- 
ing any body's service, that I am become a cypher, and he has 
gained a victory over Nelson's spirit. Captain Somerville has 
been begging me to intercede with the Admiralty again ; but 
I have been so rebuffed^ that my spirits are gone, and the 
great Troubridge has what we call cowed the spirits of Nel- 
son ; but I shall never forget it. He told me if I asked any- 



RENEWED DEPRESSION OF MIND 525 

thing more that I should get nothing. No wonder I am not 
well." 

The refusal of the Admiralty to give him leave to come to 
London, though founded on alleged motives of state, he thinks 
absurd. " They are beasts for their pains," he says ; " it was 
only depriving me of one day's comfort and happiness, for 
which they have my hearty prayers." His spleen breaks out 
in oddly comical ways. '' I have a letter from Troubridge, 
recommending me to wear flannel shirts. Does he care for 
me ? iVo; but never mind." " Troubridge writes me, that as 
the weather is set in fine again, he hopes I shall get walks on 
shore. He is, I suppose, laughing at me; but, never mind." 
Petulant words, such as quoted, and others much more harsh, 
used to an intimate friend, are of course to be allowed for as 
indicating mental exasperation and the excitement of baffled 
longings, rather than expressing permanent feeling ; but still 
they illustrate mental conditions more faithfully than do the 
guarded utterances of formal correspondence. Friendship 
rarely regains the ground lost in them. The situation did 
undoubtedly become exasperating towards the end, for no 
one pretended that any active service could be expected, or 
that his function was other than that of a signal displayed, 
indicating that Great Britain, though negotiating for peace, 
was yet on her guard. Lying in an open roadstead, with a 
heavy surf pouring in on the beach many days of the week, 
a man with one arm and one eye could not easily or safely 
get back and forth ; and, being in a small frigate pitching and 
tugging at her anchors, he was constantly seasick, so much 
so " that I cannot hold up my head," afflicted with cold and 
toothache, — " but none of them cares a d — n for me and 
my sufferings." 

In September the Hamiltons came to Deal, off which the 
ship was lying, and remained for a fortnight, during which 
he was happy; but the reaction was all the more severe when 
they returned to town on the 20th. "I came on board, but 
no Emma. No, no, my heart will break. I am in silent dis- 
traction. . . . My dearest wife, how can I bear our separation ? 
Good God, what a change ! I am so low that I cannot hold 
up my head." His depression was increased by the condi- 
tion of Parker, the young commander, who had been wounded 



526 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

off Boulogne, and had since then hovered between life and 
death. The thigh had been shattered too far up for amputa- 
tion, and the only faint hope had been that the bones might 
reunite. The day that the Hamiltons left, the great artery 
burst, and, after a brief deceitful rally, he died on the 27th of 
September. ISTelson, who was tenderly attached to him, fol- 
lowed him to the grave with emotion so deep as to be noticeable 
to the bystanders. " Thank God," he wrote that afternoon, 
" the dreadful scene is past. I scarcely know how I got over 
it. I could not suffer much more and be alive." "I own," he 
had written to St. Vincent immediately after the repulse, "I 
shall never bring m3^self again to allow any attack to go for- 
ward, where I am not personally concerned ; my mind suffers 
much more than if I had a leg shot off in this late business." 

The Admiralty refusing any allowances, much of the 
expense of Parker's illness and of his funeral fell upon Nel- 
son, who assumed all his debts. It was but one instance 
among many of a liberality in mone}" matters, which kept him 
constantly embarrassed. To the surgeon who had attended 
the w^ounded, and to the captain of the "Medusa," a much 
richer man than he was, but who had shown him kindness, he 
gave handsome remembrances of the favors which he was 
pleased to consider done to himself personally. In a like 
spirit he wrote some months afterwards, concerning a proposed 
monument to Captain Ralph Willett Miller, Avho had fought 
under his flag. " I much doubt if all the admirals and cap- 
tains will subscribe to poor dear Miller's monument; but I 
have told Davison, that whatever is wanted to make up the 
sum, I shall pay. I thought of Lord St. Vincent and myself 
paying £50 each ; some other admirals may give something, 
and I thought about £12 each for the captains who had served 
with him in the actions off Cape St. Vincent and the Nile. 
The spirit of liberality seems declining; but when I forget 
an old and dear friend, may I cease to be your affectionate 
Nelson and Bronte." Yet at this period he felt it advisable 
to sell the diamonds from the presents given him by foreign 
sovereigns. He was during these weeks particularly pressed, 
because in treaty for a house which he bought at Merton in 
Surrey, and for which he had difficulty in raising funds. In 
this his friend Davison helped him by a generous and un- 



PEACE WITH FRANCE, 1801 527 

limited offer of a loan. " The Baltic expedition," wrote Nel- 
son in his letter of thanks, " cost me full £2,000. Since I 
left London it has cost me, for Nelson cannot be like others, 
near £1,000 in six weeks. If I am continued here, ruin to 
my finances must be the consequence." 

On the 1st of October the Preliminaries of Peace with 
France were signed, and on the 9th news of their ratification 
reached Nelson on board his ship. "Thank God! it is peace," 
he exclaimed. Yet, while delighted beyond measure at the 
prospect of release from his present duties, and in general 
for the repose he now expected, he was most impatient at the 
exuberant demonstrations of the London populace, and of 
some military and naval men. " Let the rejoicings be proper 
to our several stations — the manufacturer, because he will 
have more markets for his goods, — but seamen and soldiers 
ought to say, ' Well, as it is peace, we lay down our arms ; 
and are ready again to take them up, if the French are 
insolent.' There is no person in the world rejoices more in 
the peace than I do, but I would burst sooner than let a 

d d Frenchman know it. We have made peace with the 

French despotism, and we will, I hope, adhere to it whilst the 
French continue in due bounds ; but whenever they overstep 
that, and usurp a power which would degrade Europe, then I 
trust we shall join Europe in crushing her ambition ; then I 
would with pleasure go forth and risk my life for to pull 
down the overgrown detestable power of France." When the 
mob in London dragged the carriage of the French ambassa- 
dor, his wrath quite boiled over. " Can you cure madness ?" 
he wrote to his physician ; " for I am mad to read that our 

d d scoundrels dragged a Frenchman's carriage. I am 

ashamed for our Country." "I hope never more to be dragged 
by such a degenerate set of people," he tells Lady Hamilton. 
" Would our ancestors have done it ? So, the villains would 
have drawn Buonaparte if he had been able to get to London 
to cut off the King's head, and yet all our Koyal Family will 
employ Frenchmen. Thanks to the navy, they could not." 
Nelson's soul was disturbed without cause. Under the 
ephemeral effervescence of a crowd lay a purpose as set as his 
own, and of which his present emotions were a dim and 
unconscious prophecy. 



528 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

On the 15th of October he received official notification for 
the cessation of hostilities with the French Republic, the pre- 
cise date at which they were to be considered formally at an 
end having been fixed at the 22d of the month. The Admi- 
ralty declined to allow him to leave his station until that day 
arrived. Then he had their permission to take leave of 
absence, but not to haul down his flag. " I heartily hope a 
little rest will soon set you up," wrote St. Vincent, " but until 
the definitive treaty is signed, your Lordship must continue in 
pay, although we may not have occasion to require your per- 
sonal services at the head of the squadron under your orders." 
In accordance with this decision, Nelson's flag continued to 
fly as Commander-in-Chief of a Squadron of ships '* on a par- 
ticular service," throughout the anxious period of doubt and 
suspicion which preceded the signing of the treaty of Amiens, 
on the 25th of March, 1802. It was not till the 10th of the 
following April that he received the formal orders, to strike 
his flag and come on shore. 

On the 22d of October, 1801, he left the flagship and set off 
for his new home in Surrey. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Release from Active Service during the Peace of Amiens. — 
Home Life at Merton. — Public Incidents. 

October, 1801-May, . 1803. Age, 43-44. 

DURING the brief interval between his return from the 
Baltic, July 1, 1801, and his taking command of the 
Squadron on a Particular Service, on the 27th of the same 
month, Nelson had made his home in England with the Ham- 
iltons, to whose house in Piccadilly he went immediately upon 
his arrival in London. Whatever doubt may have remained 
in his wife's mind, as to the finality of their parting in the 
previous January, or whatever trace of hesitation may then 
have existed in his own, had been definitively removed by 
letters during his absence. To her he wrote on the 4th of 
March, immediately before the expedition sailed from Yar- 
mouth : " Josiah ^ is to have another ship and to go abroad, if 
the Thalia cannot soon be got ready. I have done all for him, 
and he may again, as he has often done before, wish me to 
break my neck, and be abetted in it by his friends, who are 
likewise my enemies ; but I have done my duty as an honest, 
generous man, and I neither want or wish for anybody to care 
what becomes of me, whether I return, or am left in the Baltic. 
Living, I have done all in my power for you, and if dead, you 
will find I have done the same ; therefore my only wish is, to 
be left to myself : and wishing you every happiness, believe 
that I am, your affectionate Nelson and Bronte." Upon this 
letter Lady Nelson endorsed : " This is My Lord Nelson's 
Letter of dismissal, which so astonished me that I imme- 
diately sent it to Mr. Maurice Nelson,^ who was sincerely 

^ Josiah Nisbet, her son. 

2 Nelson's eldest brother. There appear to have been two copies of this 
letter in Nelson's hand. One, of which the latter half only remains, is in the 
British Museum. It bears the endorsement of Lady Nelson, as given. The 
other copy, entire, is in the Alfred Morrison collection — Number 536. Nel- 
son probably sent a copy to Lady Hamilton to satisfy her exigencies that the 

34 



530 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

attached to me, for his advice. He desired me not to take the 
least notice of it, as his brother seemed to have forgot himself." 
A separation preceded and caused by such circumstances as 
this was, could not fail to be attended with bitterness on both 
sides; yet one could have wished to see in a letter which is 
believed, and probably was intended, to be the last ever ad- 
dressed by him to her, some recollection, not only of what he 
himself had done for his step-son, but that once, to use his own 
expression, " the boy " had " saved his life ; " and that, after 
all, if he was under obligations to Nelson, he would have been 
more than youth, had no intemperance of expression mingled 
with the resentment he felt for the slights offered his mother 
in the face of the world. With Nelson's natural temperament 
and previous habits of thought, however, it was imperative, 
for his peace of mind, to justify his course of action to him- 
self; and this he could do only by dwelling upon the wrong 
done him by those who, in the eyes of men generally, seemed, 
and must still seem, the wronged. Of what passed between 
himself and Lady Nelson, we know too little to apportion the 
blame of a transaction in which she appears chiefly as the suf- 
ferer. Nisbet, except in the gallantry and coolness shown by 
him at Teneriffe, has not the same claim to consideration, and 
his career had undoubtedly occasioned great and legitimate 
anxiety to Nelson, whose urgency with St. Vincent was 
primarily the cause of a premature promotion, which spoiled 
the future of an officer, otherwise fairly promising.^ If the 

breach was final. The two correspond, word for word, — as far, that is, as 
the former remains. Maurice Nelson died in April, 1801. 

1 Nelson several times sjioke of Nisbet's early promise. The author is 
indebted to Mrs. F. H. B. Ecclcs, Nisbet's granddaughter, for a copy of the 
following letter from St. Vincent to his sister Mrs. Ricketts: — 

London, January 22, 1807. 
My dear Sister, — Upon rede.xion it appears best to send you tbe only 
letters I can find relative to Captain Nisbet, and to authorize you to assert in 
my name that Lord Nelson assured me that he owed his life to the resolution 
and admirable conduct of his stepson, when wounded at Teneriffe, and that 
he had witnessed many instances of his courage and enterprise. 

Yours most affectionately, 

St. Vincent. 

This letter explains how St. Vincent, feeling the value of Nelson's life to 
the country, granted, in the still warm memories of Teneriffe, a promotion 
which must have been sorely against his judgment. 



FINAL BREACH WITH HIS WIFE 531 

relations between the two had not been so soon strained by 
Nelson's attentions to Lady Hamilton, things might have 
turned out better, through the influence of one who rarely 
failed to make the most of those under his command. 

The annual allowance made to Lady Nelson by her husband, 
after their separation, was £1,800; which, by a statement he 
gave to the Prime Minister, two years later, \yhen asking an 
increase of pension, appears to have been about half of his 
total income. On the 23d of April, 1801, when daily expecting 
to leave the Baltic for England, he sent her a message through 
their mutual friend Davison : " You will, at a proper time, and 
before my arrival in England, signify to Lady N. that I expect, 
and for which I have made such a very liberal allowance to 
her, to be left to myself, and without any inquiries from her ; 
for sooner than live the unhappy life I did when last I came 
to England, I would stay abroad for ever. My mind is fixed 
as fate : therefore you will send my determination in any way 
you may judge proper." ^ To Lady Hamilton he wrote about 
the same time, assuring her, nnder the assumption of mystery 
with which he sought to guard their relations against discovery 
through the postal uncertainties of the day, that he had no 
communication with his Avife : " Thomson ^ desires me to say 
he has never wrote his aunt" since he sailed, and all the 
parade about a house is nonsense. He has wrote to his father, 
but not a word or message to her. He does not, nor cannot, 
care about her ; he believes she has a most unfeeling heart." * 

His stay with the Hamiltons in Piccadilly, though broken 
by several trips to the country, convinced Nelson that if they 
were to live together, as he wished to do, it must be, for his 
own satisfaction, in a house belonging to him. It is clear 
that the matter was talked over between Lady Hamilton and 
himself; for, immediately upon joining his command in the 
Downs, he began Avriting about the search for a house, as a 
matter already decided, in which she was to act for him. 

1 Nicolas, vol. vii. Addenda, p. ccix. In a letter to Lady Hamilton of 
the same date, Nelson says: " Read the enclosed, and send it if you approve. 
Who should I consult but my friends ? " (Morrison, vol. ii. p. 142. ) Whether 
the enclosed was this letter to Davison cannot be said; but it is likely. 
Compare foot-note, page 529. 

2 Nelson. 3 Lady Nelson, 

* Morrison, voL ii. p. 137. 



532 THE LIEE OF NELSON 

" Have you heard of any house ? I am very anxious to have 
a home where my friends might be made welcome." As usual, 
in undertakings of every kind, he chafed under delays, and he 
was ready to take the first that seemed suitable. " I really 
wish you would buy the house at Turnham Green," he writes 
her within a week. The raising of the money, it is true, pre- 
sents some diflficulty, for he has in hand but £3,000. " It is, my 
dear friend," he moralizes, " extraordinary, but true, that the 
man who is pushed forward to defend his country, has not 
from that country a place to lay his head in; but never mind, 
happy, truly happy, in the estimation of such friends as you, 
I care for nothing." 

Lady Hamilton, however, was a better business-man than 
himself, and went about his purchase with the deliberation of 
a woman shopping. At the end of three weeks he was still 
regretting that he could not " find a house and a little piece of 
ground, for if 1 go on much longer with my present command, 
I must be ruined. I think your perseverance and manage- 
ment will at last get me a home." By the 20th of August 
she was suited, for on that date he writes to her, "I 
approve of the house at Merton;" and, as the Admiralty 
would not consent to his leaving his station even for a few 
days, all the details of the bargain were left in her hands. " I 
entreat, my good friend, manage the affair of the house for 
me." He stipulates only that everything in it shall be his, 
" to a book or a cook," or even " to a pair of sheets, towels, 
&c." " I entreat I may never hear about the expenses again. 
If you live in Piccadilly or Merton it makes no difference, and 
if I was to live at Merton I must keep a table, and nothing 
can cost me one-sixth part which it does at present." "You 
are to be, recollect, Lady Paramount of all the territories and 
waters of Merton, and we are all to be your guests, and to 
obey all lawful commands." 

In this way were conducted the purchase and preparation of 
the only home of his own on English ground that Nelson ever 
possessed, where he passed his happiest hours, and from which 
he set out to fight his last battle. The negotiation was con- 
cluded three days before the rumors of the peace got abroad, 
therefore about the 27th of September, 1801 ; and in conse- 
quence, so Sir William Hamilton thought, the property was 



1 



PURCHASE OF MERTON 533 

acquired a thousand pouuds cheaper than it otherwise might 
have been — a piece of financial good luck rare in Nelson's 
experience. " We have now inliabited your Lordship's prem- 
ises some days," continued the old knight, " and I can now 
speak with some certainty. I have lived with our dear Knima 
several years. I know her merit, have a great opinion of the 
head and heart that God Almighty has been pleased to give 
her ; but a seaman alone could have given a fine woman full 
power to chuse and fit up a residence for him without seeing 
it himself. You are in luck, for in my conscience I verily 
believe that a place so suitable to your views could not have 
been found, and at so cheap a rate. The proximity to the 
capital," — Nelson found it an hour's drive from Hyde Park 
— " and the perfect retirement of this place, are, for your 
Lordship, two points beyond estimation ; but the house is 
so comfortable, the furniture clean and good, and I never 
saw so many conveniences united in so small a compass. You 
have nothing but to come and enjoy immediately ; you have a 
good mile of pleasant dry walk around your own farm. It 
would make you laugh to see Emma and her mother fitting up 
pig-sties and hen-coops, and already the Canal is enlivened 
with ducks, and the cock is strutting with his hens about the 
walks." 

As time passed. Sir William did not realize the comfort he 
had anticipated from surroundings so pleasant as those he 
described. He was troubled in money matters, fearing lest 
he might be distressed to meet the current expenses of the 
house. " If we had given up the house in Piccadilly," he 
lamented to Greville, "the living here Avould indeed be a 
great saving ; but, as it is, we spend neither more nor less 
than we did." Why he did not give it up does not appear. 
As Lady Paramount over the owner of the place, Lady Hamil- 
ton insisted upon entertaining to a degree consonant to the 
taste neither of Lord Nelson, who was only too pleased to 
humor her whims, nor of her husband, who had an old man's 
longing for quiet, and, besides, was not pleased to find him- 
self relegated to a place in her consideration quite secondary 
to that of his host. '* It is but reasonable," he wrote to 
Greville, in January, 1802, " after having fagged all my life, 
that my last days should pass off comfortably and quietly. 



534 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nothing at present disturbs me but my debt, and the nonsense 
I am obliged to submit to here to avoid coming to an explo- 
sion, which would be attended with many disagreeable effects, 
and would totally destroy the comfort of the best man and 
the best friend I have in the world. However, I am deter- 
mined that my quiet shall not be disturbed, let the nonsensi- 
cal world go on as it will." 

Neither the phlegm on which he prided himself, nor his 
resolutions, were sufficient, however, to keep the peace, or to 
avoid undignified contentions with his wife. Some months 
later he addressed her a letter, which, although bearing no 
date, was evidently written after a prolonged experience of 
the conditions entailed upon himself by this odd partnership; 
for partnership it was, in form at least, the living expenses 
being divided between the two.^ In their quiet reasonable- 
ness, his words are not without a certain dignified pathos, 
and they have the additional interest of proving, as far as 
words can prove, that, battered man of the world though he 
was, he had no suspicion, within a year of his death, that the 
relations between his host and his wife were guilty towards 
himself. 

" I have passed the last 40 years of my life in the hurry & bustle 
that must necessarily be attendant on a publick character. I am 
arrived at the age when some repose is really necessary, & I promised 
myself a quiet home, & altlio' I was sensible, & said so when I mar- 
ried, that I shou'd be superannuated when my wife wou'd be in her 
full beauty and vigour of youth. Tliat time is arrived, and we must 
make the best of it for the comfort of both parties. Unfortunately 
our tastes as to the manner of living are very different. I by no 
means wish to live in solitary retreat, but to have seldom less than 
12 or 14 at table, and those varying continually, is coming back to 
what was become so irksome to me in Italy during the latter years 
of my residence in that country. 1 hav^ no connections out of my 
own family. 1 have no complaint to make, but I feel that the whole 
attention of my wife is given to Ld. N. and his interest at Merton. 
I well know the purity of Ld. N.'s friendship for Emma and me, 
and I know how very uncomfortable it wou'd make his Lp, our best 
friend, if a separation shou'd take place, & am therefore determined 
to do all iu my power to prevent such an extremity, which wou'd be 

* On the 21st of September, 1802, six months before Hamilton's death, he 
was still £1,200 in Nelson's debt. (Morrison, vol. ii. p. 404.) 



HOME LIFE AT MERTON 535 

essentially detrimental to all parties, but wou'd be more sensibly felt 
by our dear friend than by us. Provided that our expences in house- 
keejjing do not encrease beyond measure (of which I must own I see 
some danger), I am willing to go on upon our present footing; but 
as I cannot expect to live many years, every moment to me is pre- 
cious, & I hope I may be allow'd sometimes to be my own master, 
& pass my time according to my own inclination, either by going my 
fishing parties on the Thames or by going to London to attend the 
Museum, R. Society, the Tuesday Club, & Auctions of pictures. I 
mean to have a light chariot or post chaise by the month, that I may 
make use of it in London and run backwards and forwards to Merton 
or to Shepperton, &c. This is my plan, and we miglit go on very 
well, but I am fully determined not to have more of the very silly 
altercations that happen but too often between us and embitter the 
present moments exceedingly. If realy one cannot live comfortably 
together, a ivise and well concerted separation is preferable; but I 
think, considering the probability of my not troubling any party long 
in this world, the best for us all wou'd be to bear those ills we have 
rather than flie to those we know not of. I have fairly stated what 
I have on my mind. There is no time for nonsense or trifling. I 
know and admire your talents & many excellent qualities, biit I am 
not blind to your defects, and confess having many myself ; therefore 
let us bear and forbear for God's sake." ^ 

There are other accounts by eye-witnesses of the home 
life at Merton, in which participated, from time to time, not 
only the many outside guests, of whose burden Hamilton 
complained, but also most of the members of the Nelson 
family. Lord Minto, who had returned to England from 
Vienna, and whose personal friendship to Nelson never slack- 
ened, wrote to his wife, in March, 1802: "I went to Lord 
Nelson's on Saturday to dinner, and returned to-day in the 
forenoon. The whole establishment and way of life are such 
as to make me angry, as well as melancholy; but I cannot 
alter it, and I do not think myself obliged, or at liberty, to 
quarrel with him for his weakness, though nothing shall ever 
induce me to give the smallest countenance to Lady Hamilton. 
She looks ultimately to the chance of marriage, as Sir William 
will not be long in her way, and she probably indulges a hope 
that she may survive Lady Nelson; in the meanwhile she 
and Sir William, and the whole set of them, are living with 
1 Morrison, No. 684. 



ft36 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

him at his expense. She is in high looks, but more immense 
than ever. The love^ she makes to Nelson is not only ridicu- 
lous, but disgusting : not only the rooms, but the whole house, 
staircase and all, are covered with nothing but pictures of 
her and him, of all sizes and sorts, and representations of his 
naval actions, coats-of-arms, pieces of plate in his honour, the 
flag-staff of L'Orient, »S:c. — an excess of vanity which coun- 
teracts its own purpose. If it was Lady Hamilton's house 
there might be a pretence for it; to make his own house a 
mere looking-glass to view himself all day is bad taste. 
Braham, the celebrated Jew singer, performed with Lady 
Hamilton. She is horrid, but he entertained me in spite of 
her." Of this same period, but a year later, at the time of 
Hamilton's death, Minto wrote : " Lady Hamilton talked very 
freely [to me] of her situation with Nelson, and the construc- 
tion the world may have put upon it, but protested that their 
attachment had been perfectly pure, which I declare I can 
believe, though I am sure it is of no consequence whether it 
be so or not. The shocking injury done to Lady Nelson is 
not made less or greater, by anything that may or may not 
have occurred between him and Lady Hamilton." 

On the 6th of November, 1861, Mr. Matcham, a nephew of 
Lord Nelson, wrote for the " Times " some reminiscences of 
the great admiral, as he had known him in private life, both 
at this period, and three years later, just before Trafalgar. 
His letter was elicited by the publication of the " Remains of 
Mrs. Trench." In this had appeared extracts from her jour- 
nal, when Mrs. St. George, containing statements derogatory 
to Nelson's conduct in Dresden, when on the journey from 
Trieste to Hamburg in the year 1800; some of which have 
been quoted already in this work.^ Mr. Matcham's words, so 
far as they relate to Nelson himself, are here given in full: "^ 

I too Sir, as well as " the Lady," had some knowledge of that per- 
son, so much honoured and so much maligned; and although I do 
not defend his one great error (though in that, with some palliation, 
there were united elements of a generous and noble nature), I venture 
to say that whoever forms a notion of his manners and deportment 

1 A^ite, p. 441. 

■^ From Mr. G. Lathom Browne's " Nelson : His Public and Private Life," 
London, 1891, p. 412. 



HOME LIFE AT MERTON 537 

in private life from this account of him, will labour under a very great 
delusion. 

I visited my uncle twice during the short periods in which he was 
on shore — once in 1802, during his journey to Wales, when he was 
received at Oxford and other places ; and the second time at his house 
at Merton, in 1805, for three weeks preceding the 15th of September, 
when he left to embark at Portsmouth to return no more ; and I can 
assert with truth that a more complete contrast between this lady's 
portrait and my thorough recollection of him could not be forced on 
my mind. Lord Nelson in private life was remarkable for a de- 
meanour quiet, sedate, and unobtrusive, anxious to give pleasure to 
evei'y one about him, distinguishing each in turn by some act of 
kindness, and chiefly those who seemed to require it most. 

During his few intervals of leisure, in a little knot of relations and 
friends, he delighted in quiet conversation, through which occasionally 
ran an undercurrent of pleasantry, not unmixed with caustic wit. 
At his table he was the least heard among the company, and so far 
from being the hero of his own tale, I never heard him voluntarily 
refer to any of the great actions of his life. 

I have known him lauded by the great and wise; but he seemed to 
me to waive the homage with as little attention as was consistent 
with civility. Nevertheless, a mind like his was necessarily won by 
attention from those who could best estimate his value. 

On his return from his last interview with Mr. Pitt, being asked 
in what manner he had been received, he replied that he had reason 
to be gratified with his reception, and concluded with animation, 
" Mr. Pitt, when I rose to go, left the room with me, and attended 
me to the carriage " — a spontaneous mark of respect and admira- 
tion from the great statesman, of which, indeed, he might well be 
proud. 

It would have formed an amusement to the cii'cle at Merton, if 
intemperance were set down to the master of the house, who always 
so prematurely cut short the sederunt of the gentlemen after dinner. 

A man of more temperate habits could not, I am persuaded, have 
been found. It appears that the person of Lord Nelson (although he 
was not as described, a little man, but of the middle height and of 
a frame adapted to activity and exertion) did not find favour with the 
lady ; and I presume not to dispute her taste, but in his plain suit of 
black, in which he alone recurs to my memory, he always looked what 
he was — a gentleman. Whatever expletives of an objectionable 
kind may be ascribed to him, I feel persuaded that such rarely en- 
tered into his conversation. He was, it is true, a sailor, and one of 
a warm and generous disposition ; yet I can safely affirm that I never 
heard a coarse expression issue from his lips, nor do I recollect one 
word or action of his to which even a disciple of Chesterfield could 



538 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



reasonably object. If such did arise, it would be drawn forth when 
a friend was attacked, or even an enemy unjustly accused ; for bis 
disposition was so truly noble, that it revolted against all wrong and 
oppression. His heart, indeed, was as tender as it was courageous. 
Nor do I think, Sir, that it is a necessary concession to truth that 
you or others should lower your conception of this popular personage, 
on account of the exaggerated colours in which he is here drawn. 
Those who best knew the man the most estimated his value, and 
many who like myself could not appreciate his professional superior- 
ity, would yet bear witness to his gentleness, kindness, good-breeding, 
and courtesy. 

He was not " a rude and boisterous captain of the sea." From his 
early years, by the introduction of his uncle, the Comptroller of the 
Navy, he was associated with the elite of his own profession ; and the 
influences of his own paternal home, and his acquaintance with 
the first families of his native county, to many of whom he was re- 
lated, would not allow a man of his intelligence and proper pride to 
foster coarseness beyond the habits of his age. 

It appears to me that, however flattering or consolatory the recital 
of the follies or foibles of great men may be to that mediocrity which 
forms the mass of mankind, the person who undertakes to cater for 
mere amusement withdraws something from the common stock of 
his country. The glory of Great Britain depends as much on the 
heroes she has produced, as on her wealth, her influence, and her 
possessions ; and the true patriot and honourable man, if he can- 
not add to their lustre, will at least refrain from any premeditated 
act which may dim their fame, and diminish that high estimation of 
them which expedience, nationality, and gratitude should alike con- 
tribute to sustain. 

A Nephew of Admiral Lord Nelson. 



A glimpse of the family life at Merton, and of the society 
which gathered there, has been casually preserved for us. 
It presents not only an interesting group of the admiral's as- 
sociates, but also the record of a conversation concerning him, 
under his own roof, transmitted by one of the parties to it; 
particularly instructive, because showing the contradictory 
traits which illustrated his character, and the impression 
made by him upon his contemporaries and intimates, — men 
who had seen him upon all kinds of occasions, both great and 
small. It corroborates, too, the report of these superficial 
inconsistencies made by the Duke of Wellington on a later 
occasion. The narrator. Lieutenant Layman, was the same 



HOME LIFE AT MERTON 539 

who had recently been with Nelson in the Baltic, and who 
has before been quoted in connection with that expedition. 
Sir Alexander Ball will be remembered as one of his chief 
supports during the long chase that preceded the Battle of 
the Nile, as well as in the action, and afterwards during the 
protracted operations around Malta. Hood was also a Nile 
captain. 

"During the temporary peace, Mr. Layman spent some 
days at Merton, with Sir Alexander Ball and Sir Samuel 
Hood. One day, after tea in the drawing-room, Lord Nelson 
was earnestly engaged in conversation with Sir Samuel. Mr. 
Layman observed to Sir Alexander, that Lord Nelson was at 
work by his countenance and mouth, that he was a most ex- 
traordinary man, possessing opposite points of character 5 
little in little things, but by far the greatest man in great 
things he ever saw : that he had seen him petulant in trifles, 
and as cool and collected as a philosopher when surrounded 
by dangers, in which men of common minds, with clouded 
countenance, would say, 'Ah! what is to be done?' It was 
a treat to see his animated and collected countenance in the 
heat of action. Sir Alexander remarked this seeming incon- 
sistency, and mentioned that, after the Battle of the Nile, 
the captains of the squadron were desirous to have a good 
likeness of their heroic chief taken, and for that purpose 
employed one of the most eminent painters in Italy. The 
plan was to ask the painter to breakfast, and get him to be- 
gin immediately after. Breakfast being over, and no prepara- 
tion being made by the painter, Sir Alexander was selected 
by the other captains to ask him when he intended to begin ; 
to which the answer was, 'Never.' Sir Alexander said, he 
stared, and they all stared, but the artist continued : ' There 
is such a mixture of humility with ambition in Lord Nelson's 
countenance, that I dare not risk the attempt.' " ^ 

Tliere is yet another casual mention of the Merton home life, 
illustrative of more than one feature of Nelson's native char- 
acter. Many years later the daughter of the Vicar of the 
parish, when transmitting a letter to Sir Harris Nicolas, added : 
" In revered affection for the memory of that dear man, I cannot 
refrain from informing you of his unlimited charity and good- 
^ Naval Chronicle, vol. xxxvii. p. 445. 



540 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ness during his residence at Merton. His frequently expressed 
desire was, that none in that place should want or suffer afflic- 
tion that he could alleviate ; and this I know he did with a 
most liberal hand, always desiring that it should not be known 
from whence it came. His residence at Merton was a continued 
course of charity and goodness, setting such an example of 
propriety and regularity that there are few who would not be 
benefited by following it." His thoughtfulness and generosity 
to those about him was equally shown in his charges to his 
agents at Bronte, for the welfare of the Sicilian peasantry 
upon his estate. In the regularity and propriety of observ- 
ance which impressed the clergyman's daughter, he carried 
out the ideal he had proposed to Lady Hamilton. " Have we 
a nice church at Merton ? We will set an examj)le of good, 
ness to the under parishioners." 

Whatever of censure or of allowance may be pronounced upon 
the life he was living, there was in the intention just quoted 
no effort to conciliate the opinion of society, which he was 
resolute in braving; nor was it inconsistent with the general 
tenor of his thoughts. In the sense of profound recognition 
of the dependence of events upon God, and of the obligation 
to manifest gratitude in outward act, Nelson was from first to 
last a strongly religious man. To his sin he had contrived to 
reconcile his conscience by fallacies, analogies to which will 
be supplied by the inward experience of many, if they will be 
honest with themselves. The outcome upon character of such 
dealings with one's self is, in the individual case, a matter to 
whicli man's judgment is not competent. During the last two 
years and a half of Nelson's life, the chaplain of the " Victory " 
was associated with him in close intimacy as confidential sec- 
retary, with whom he talked freely on many matters. " He 
was," said this gentleman, "a thorough clergyman's son — I 
should think he never went to bed or got up without kneeling 
down to say his prayers." He often expressed his attachment 
to the church in which he had been brought up, and showed 
the sincerity of his words by the regularity and respect with 
which he always had divine service performed on board the 
"Victory," whenever the weather permitted. After the ser- 
vice he had generally a few words with the chaplain on the 
subject of the sermon, either thanking him for its being a good 



THE COPENHAGEN CONTROVERSY 541 

one, or remarking that it was not so well adapted as usual to 
the crew. More than once, on such occasions, he took down a 
volume of sermons in his own cabin, with the page already 
marked at some discourse which he thought well suited to 
such a congregation, and requested Dr. Scott to preach it on 
the following Sunday.^ 

On the 29th of October, 1801, just one week after he left the 
Downs, Nelson took his seat in the House of Lords as a Vis- 
count, his former commander-in-chief, Hood, who was of the 
same rank in the peerage, being one of those to present him. 
While in England he spoke from time to time on professional 
subjects, or those connected with the external policy of the 
country, on which he held clear and decided opinions, based, 
naturally, upon naval exigencies. His first speech was a 
warm and generous eulogy of Sir James Saumarez, once second 
to himself at the Battle of the Nile, an officer with whom it is 
not too much to say he was not in close personal sympathy, as 
he had been with Troubridge, but who had just fought two 
desperate squadron actions under conditions of singular diffi- 
culty, out of which he had wrenched a success that was both 
signal and, in the then state of the war and negotiations, most 
opportune. " Sir James Saumarez's action," said Lord St. 
Vincent, "has put us upon velvet." 

Nelson's own thirst for glory made him keenly appreciative 
of the necessity to be just and liberal, in distributing to those 
who had achieved great deeds the outward tokens of distin- 
guished service, which often are the sole recompense for dan- 
gers run and hardships borne. Scarcely had he retired from 
his active command in the Channel when he felt impelled to 
enter upon a painful and humiliating controversy, on behalf 
of those who had shared with him all the perils of the des- 
perate Battle of Copenhagen ; for which, unlike himself, they 
had received no reward, but from whom he refused to be 
dissociated in the national esteem and gratitude. 

On the 19th of November, 1801, the City of London voted 
its thanks to the divisions of the Army and the Navy, whose 
joint operations during the previous summer had brought to 
an end the French occupation of Egypt, begun by Bonaparte 
in 1798. Nelson had for some time been uneasy that no such 
1 Life of Eev. A. J. Scott, D.D., p. 191. 



542 THE LIFE OP NELSON 

notice had been taken of the Battle of Copenhagen, for the 
custom of the Corporation of the chief city of the Empire, thus 
to honor the great achievements of their armed forces, was, 
he asserted, invariable in his experience ; consequently, the 
omission in the case of Copenhagen was a deliberate slight, 
the implication of which, he thought, could not be disre- 
garded. Delay, up to the time then present, might be attrib- 
uted to other causes, not necessarily offensive, although, from 
a letter to his friend Davison, he seems to have feared neglect ; 
but the vote of thanks to the two Services for their successes 
in Egypt left no room to doubt, that the failure to take similar 
action in the case of Copenhagen was intentional. 

This Nelson regarded, and justly, as an imputation upon the 
transactions there. Where a practice is invariable, omission 
is as significant as commission can be. Either the victory was 
doubtful, or of small consequence, or, for some other reason, 
not creditable to the victors. He wrote at once to the Lord 
Mayor. After recalling the facts, he said : " If I were only 
personally concerned, I should bear the stigma, now first 
attempted to be placed upon my brow, with humility. But, 
my Lord, I am the natural guardian of the characters of the 
Officers of the Navy, Army, and Marines, who fought, and so 
profusely bled, under my command on that day. . . . When I 
am called upon to speak of the merits of the Captains of his 
Majesty's ships, and of the officers and men, whether seamen, 
marines, or soldiers, I that day had the happiness to command, 
I say, that never was the glory of this country upheld with 
more determined bravery than upon that occasion, and more 
important service was never rendered to our King and Coun- 
try. It is my duty to prove to the brave fellows, my compan- 
ions in dangers, that / have not failed, at every proper place, to 
represent, as well as I am able, their bravery and meritorious 
services." 

This matter was the occasion of bringing him into collision 
with the Admiralty and the Government on the same subject. 
Although his private representations, soon after his return to 
England, had obtained from Lord St. Vincent,, as he thought, 
a promise that medals should be issued for the battle, no 
steps thereto had been taken. He now enclosed to the Prime 
Minister and to the First Lord a copy of his letter to the 



MISUNDERSTANDING WITH ST. VINCENT 543 

Lord Mayor; and to both he alluded to the assurance he be- 
lieved had been made him, "I have," he said, "been expect- 
ing the medals daily since the King's return from Weymouth." 
St. Vincent's reply was prompt as himself. With reference 
to the former matter, he confined himself to drily thanking 
Nelson, without comment, " for communicating the letter you 
have judged fit to write to the Lord Mayor;" but as to the 
medals, he wrote a separate note, telling him that he had 
" given no encouragement, but on the contrary had explained 
to your Lordship, and to Mr. Addington, the impropriety of 
such a measure being recommended to the King." 

Nelson, to use his own word, was "thunder-struck" by this 
statement. " I own," he said, " I considered the words your 
Lordship used as conveying an assurance. It was an apology 
for their not being given before, which, I understood you, they 
would have been, but for the difficulty of fixing who was to 
have them. ... I have never failed assuring the Captains, 
that I have seen and communicated with, that they might 
depend on receiving them. ... I could not, my dear Lord, 
have had any interest in misunderstanding you, and represent- 
ing that as an intended Honour from the King which you 
considered as so improper to be recommended to the King: 
therefore I must beg that your Lordship will reconsider our 
conversation — to me of the very highest concern, and think 
that I could not but believe that we would have medals. I 
am truly made ill by your letter." St. Vincent replied briefly, 
" That you have perfectly mistaken all that passed between us 
in the conversation you allude to, is most certain. At the 
same time I am extremely concerned that it should have had 
so material an effect upon your health," etc, "Either Lord ' 
St. Vincent or myself are liars," wrote Nelson to Davison. 
The conclusion is not inevitable to those who have had ex- 
perience of human misunderstandings ; but, recalling Mr. 
Eose's interview with St. Vincent in April, ^ it seems likely 
that in July the mind of the latter was still undecided, and 
that consequently Nelson's recollection of what he then said 
was correct. 

The Prime Minister took a week to reply. When he did, 
he deprecated the sending of any letter to the Mayor, for 
1 Ante, p. 489. 



544 THE LIFE OF NELSOK 

reasons, he said, " not merely of a public nature, but connected 
with the interest I shall ever take in your well-earned fame." 
These reasons, he added, he would be ready to give him in a 
private interview. Nelson had asked his opinion upon the 
terms of the letter ; but, impatient after waiting three days, 
had already sent it in when this answer came. Probably, with 
his usual promptness, he called at once ; for on the same day, 
November 28, that he received Addington's letter he withdrew 
that to the Mayor.^ " By the advice of a friend, I have now 
to request that your Lordship will consider my letter as with- 
drawn, as the discussion of the question viay bring forward 
characters tvhich had better rest quiet." ^ In short, honors, 
due to those who fought, were withheld out of consideration 
to those who had not fought. Nelson himself recognized the 
difficulty. " They are not Sir Hyde Parker's real friends who 
wish for an inquiry," he had written to Davison before leav- 
ing the Baltic. " His friends in the fleet wish everything of 
this fleet to be forgot, for we all respect and love Sir Hyde ; 
but the dearer his friends, the more uneasy they have been 
at his idleness, for that is the truth — no criminality." But, 
as he characteristically said of another matter occurring about 
this time, "I was told the difficulties were insurmountable. 
My answer was, 'As the thing is necessary to be done, the 
more difficulties, the more necessary to try to remove them.'" 
As regards the soundness of Nelson's grounds, and the pro- 
priety of his action in this matter, it must, first, be kept in 
mind, that, before the City voted its thanks to the Navy 
engaged in Egypt, he had spoken in the House of Lords in 
favor of the thanks of the Government to the same force, 
although, as a whole, it had there played a subordinate part ; 
and also, that, although deprived of the medal which he hoped 
to get in common with others, he had himself been rewarded 
for Copenhagen by promotion in the peerage.^ This separa- 
tion between himself and the mass of those who fought under 
him, necessarily intensified the feeling of one always profusely 
generous, in praise as in money ; but his point otherwise was 
well taken. The task was ungracious and unpleasant, it 
may almost be called dirty work to have thus to solicit 

^ Nicolas, vol. iv. ji. 533. 

- Ibid., vol. vii. p. ccx. (Author's italics.) ^ Ibid., vol. v. ji. CO. 



HIS DEVOTION TO HIS FOLLOWERS 545 

honors and distinction for deeds in which one has borne the 
principal part ; but dirty work must at times be done, with 
hands or words, and the humiliation then rests, not with him 
who does it, but with them wlio make it necessary. Had the 
victors at Copenhagen fought a desperate fight, and Avere they 
neglected? If so, and the outside world looked indifferently 
on, who from among them should first come forth to defend 
their glory fronr implication of some undefined stain, if not 
their Commander-in-Chief, one whose great renown could well 
spare the additional ray of lustre which he demanded for 
them. Whether underneath lay some spot of self-seeking, of 
the secondary motive from which so few of us are free, mat- 
ters little or nothing. The thing was right to be done, and he 
did it. If the Government and the City of London, by calcu- 
lated omission, proclaimed, as they did, that these men had 
not deserved Avell of their country, it became him to say, as 
he did, openly to the City, subordinately to his superiors, that 
they had done men's work and deserved men's reward. 

"If Lord Nelson could forget the services of those who 
have fought under his command, he would ill deserve to be so 
supported as he always has been." Thus he closed his last 
letter to the Lord Mayor on this subject, a year after the corre- 
spondence began. It was such noble sympathy with all beneath 
him, the lack of which has been charged against the great 
Commander of the British Army of this period, that Avon for 
Nelson the enthusiastic affection Avhich, in all parts of his 
command, however remote from his own eyes, aroused the 
ardent desire to please him. No good service done him es- 
caped his hearty acknowledgment, and he Avas unwearied in 
upholding the just claims of others to consideration. In the 
matter of Copenhagen, up to the time he left the country, 
eighteen months later, he refused any compromise. He 
recognized, of course, that he was poAverless in the face of St. 
Vincent's opposition ; but, he wrote to one of the captains 
engaged, '^ I am fixed never to abandon the fair fame of my 
companions in dangers. I have had a meeting Avith Mr. 
Addington on the subject; I don't expect Ave shall get much 
by it, except having had a full opportunity of speaking my 
mind." The Premier's arguments had been to him wholly 
inconclusive. Oddly enough, as things were, the Sultan sent 

35 



546 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

him a decoration for Copenhagen. Coming from a foreign 
sovereign, there was, in accepting it, no inconsistency with his 
general attitnde ; but in referring the question to the Govern- 
ment, as was necessai-y, he told the Prime Minister, " If I can 
judge the feelings of others by myself, there can be no honours 
bestowed upon me by foreigners that do not reflect ten times 
on our Sovereign and Country." '• 

In conformity with this general stand, when it was proposed 
in June, 1802, to give him the thanks of the City, for taking 
command of the force destined to defend it against invasion, 
he wrote to request that the motion might be withdrawn, on 
the express ground that no thanks had been given those 
engaged at Copenhagen. "1 should feel much mortified, 
wlien I reflected on the noble support I that day received, at 
any honour which could separate me from them." He alleged 
the same reason, in the following September, for refusing to 
dine with the Corporation. ''Never, till the City of London 
think justly of the merits of my brave companions of the 2d 
of April, can I, their commander, receive any attention from 
the City of London." A like refusal was sent to his invitation 
for Lord Mayor's day. 

After the interview with Mr. Addington, the question of 
medals was dropped. He had explained his position fully, 
and felt that it was hopeless to attempt more, so long as 
the Admiralty was against him ; but when the Adminis- 
tration changed, in May, 1804, he wrote to Lord Melville, 
the new First Lord, enclosing a statement of facts, includ- 
ing his correspondence with St. Vincent, and requesting a 
reconsideration of the matter. "The medal," he said, is 
Avithheld, "for what reason Lord St. Vincent best knows. 
I hope," he concluded, "for your recommendation to his 
Majesty, that he may be pleased to bestow that mark of 
honour on the battle of Copenhagen, which his goodness has 

' It is possible that Nelson liere used the word " reflect " in the primary 
sense of reflecting honor ; but in the secondary sense of being a reflection 
upon those who had denied a just claim, the phrase, ambiguous as it stands, 
represented accurately his feelings. "I own, my dear Sir,'' he said again 
to the Premier, with reference to this decoration, " great as this honour will 
be, it will have its alio}', if I cannot at the same time wear the medal for the 
Battle of Copenhagen, the greatest and most honourable reward in the power 
of our Sovereign to bestow, as it marks my personal services." 



THE COPENHAGEN CONTROVERSY 547 

given to the Battle of St. Vincent, the First of June, of 
Camperdown, and the Nile." Melville, in a very sympathetic 
and courteous letter, declined, for a reasoti whose weight 
must be admitted: "When badges of triumph are bestowed in 
the heat and conflict of war, they do not rankle in the minds 
even of the enemy, at whose expense they are bestowed ; but 
the feeling, I suspect, would be very different in Denmark, if 
the present moment was to be chosen for opening afresh 
wounds which are, I trust, now healed, or in the daily prog- 
ress of being so." So it resulted that no inark of public 
recognition was conferred, during Nelson's life, upon the 
most difficult, the most hazardous, and, at the moment, per- 
haps the most critically important of his victories, which he 
himself considered the greatest of his achievements. 

This unfortunate and embittering controversy was the 
most marked and characteristic incident of his residence at 
Merton, between October, 1801, when he first went there, and 
May, 1803, when he departed for the Mediterranean, upon the 
renewal of war with France. Living always with the Hamil- 
tons, the most copious stream of priv^ate correspondence was 
cut off ; and being unemployed after April, 1802, his official 
letters are confined to subjects connected rather with the past 
than with the then present time. Upon general naval ques- 
tions he had, however, something to say. A trip to Wales 
suggests a memorandum to the Prime Minister concerning 
the cultivation and preservation of oak timber in the Forest 
of Dean. He submits to him also his views as to the disposi- 
tion of Malta, in case the provision of the Treaty of Amiens, 
which re-established there the Order of the Knights under 
the guarantee of the six great Powers, should fail, owing to the 
refusal of Eussia to join in the proposed guarantee. At the 
time he wrote, — December, 1802, — the question was become 
burning, threatening the rupture of the existing peace between 
France and Great Britain ; a result which, in fact, soon 
followed, and turned mainly upon this point. The essential 
aim in the provision, he observed, was that neither of the two 
countries should have the island. If the Order could not be 
restored, then it ought to go to Naples, again under the 
guarantee of the Powers. It was useless to England, for 
operations against France ; and in the hands of the latter 



548 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

was a direct menace to Sicily. This arrangement would accord 
with the spirit of the treaty ; but if it also was impracticable, 
Great Britain had no choice but to keep Malta herself. It 
would cost £300,000 annually, but anything was better than 
to chance its falling again into the hands of France. 

In like manner he submitted to the Admiralty plans for the 
more certain manning of the Navy, and for the prevention of 
desertion. The material conditions of seamen while in the 
service, the pay and provisions, were, he consideretl, all that 
could be desired ; but still there was great indisposition to 
enlist, and the desertions in the last war, 1793-1801, rose to 
the enormous figure of forty-two thousand. The remedy he 
outlined was a Registration of seamen, and of certificates to 
be given them, bearing a personal description by which they 
could be identified, and on which their character and services 
would appear. For lack of such papers, seamen b}' hundreds 
were in London in distress, although large amounts of money 
were due them at prize agencies, where the agent feared to 
pay for want of identification. A certificate showing five 
years' faithful service should entitle the holder to an annual 
bounty of two guineas, to be increased by further periods. 
Such provisions were well calculated to appeal to men accus- 
tomed to entertain prudential considerations, and to create 
gradually a class with whom they would weigh, and who would 
by them be retained in permanent employment. In meeting 
the case of desertions, caused by the heedlessness and weak- 
ness of seamen, Nelson became more vague. The nature of the 
trouble he recognized clearly enough, but there is a lack of 
definiteness in the remedy he proposed to meet an evil which 
still exists. ''The mainspring of all my plan is, that of 
Certificates fully descriptive of the persons ; the very greatest 
good must result from it. Something should be attempted at 
these times to make our seamen, at the din of war, fly to 
our Navy, instead of flying from it." His plan is substan- 
tially that now adopted. 

Closely connected with the discontent of seamen was the 
subject of prize-money, in the receipt and distribution of 
which great irregularities and abuses existed among the 
agents, to remove which also he made particular and detailed 
suggestions ; and he strongly supported, though with dis- 



I 



I 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 549 

criminating criticism, the Bill for an Inquiry into Naval 
Abuses, which embodied the most prominent of St. Vincent's 
administrative measures while at the head of the Admiralty. 
But, though thus supporting the Earl in his policy of investi- 
gation, and retaining his respect for him as a sea-officer, he 
was utterly dissatisfied with the general conduct of the Ad- 
miralty and with its attitude towards himself in particular. 
'•' I attribute none of the tyrannical conduct of the late Board 
to Lord St. Vincent," he Avrote two years later. "For the 
Earl I have a sincere regard, but he was dreadfully ill-advised, 
and I fear the Service has suffered much from their conduct." 
It would seem as if he did not, after the first moments of 
annoyance, forget the irritation he felt against Troubridge at 
being retained in the Downs against his will, and, as he 
thought, without necessity. " I thank you," he wrote to 
Captain Murray, "for taking the trouble of driving seven 
miles to make me a visit; for, could you believe it, there are 
those who I thought were my firm friends, some of near 
thirty years' standing — who have never taken that trouble ! " 
This may not refer to Troubridge, but the description an- 
swers to him, and it appears that in the Nelson-Hamilton 
circle his name now stood as a type of ingratitude.^ 

Writing to Davison in September, 1802, after a trip of six 
weeks made to Wales, in company with the Hamiltons, he 
says: "Our tour has been very tine and interesting, and 
the way in which I have been everywhere received most 
flattering to my feelings ; and although some of the higher 
powers may wish to keep me down, yet the reward of the 
general approbation and gratitude for my services is an ample 
reward for all I have done ; but it makes a comparison fly up to 
my mind, not much to the credit of some in the higher Offices 
of the State." He seems to have felt that neither in his 
influence with the Admiralty, nor in reference to his opinions 
on foreign topics, did he receive the recognition that his dis- 
tinguished services, abilities, and experience claimed. " Hav- 
ing failed entirely in submitting my thoughts on three points " 
— those just cited, manning, desertion, and prize-money — 
" I was disheartened ; " and to this he attributes his not sendr 

1 See Pettigrew, vol. ii. p. 225 ; Morrison, vol. ii. p. 176. 



550 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ing in a memoir which he had prepared upon the subject of 
the Flotilla for Coast Defence. 

But, while he resented this neglect, it did not greatly in- 
terfere with his happiness, which was at this time wellnigh 
complete. He complains of ill health, it is true, from time 
to time, and his means were insufficient duly to keep up the 
two establishments — Lady Kelson's and Merton — for which 
he was pecuniarily responsible. Under this embarrassment 
he chafed, and with a sense of injustice which was not un- 
founded ; for, if reward be proportioned to merit and to the 
importance of services rendered. Nelson had been most in- 
adequately repaid. For the single victories of St. Vincent 
and Camperdown, each commander-in-chief had received a 
pension of £3,000. The Nile and Copenhagen together had 
brought him no more than £2,000 ; indeed, as he had already 
been granted £1,000 a year for St. Vincent, another thousand 
may be said to have been all he got for two of the greatest 
victories of the war. In submitting a request for an increase, 
he asked pertinently, " Was it, or not, the intention of his 
Majesty's Government to place my rewards for services 
lower than Lord St. Vincent or Lord Duncan ? " There was, 
of course, the damaging circumstance that the conditions 
under which he chose to live made him poorer than he 
needed to be ; but with this the Government had no concern. 
Its only care should have been that its recompense was com- 
mensurate with his deserts, and it is revolting to see a man 
like Nelson, naturally high-toned and always liberal, forced 
to the undignified position of urging — and in vain — for the 
equal remuneration that should have been granted sponta- 
neously long before. 

In his criticisms of the Admiralty's general course, it does 
not appear whether Nelson, who was hereafter to be the 
greatest sufferer from St.Vincent's excessive economies, realized 
as yet the particular injury being done by them to the material 
of the Navy. In his passion for reform, the veteran seaman 
obstinately shut his eyes to the threatening condition of the 
political atmosphere, and refused to recognize the imminent 
danger of a renewal of the war, because it necessarily Avould 
jiustpone his projected innovations. Assuming the con- 
tinuance of peace with all the violence of a prejudice, he 



INSTABILITY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 551 

permitted the strength and resources of the Navy to de- 
teriorate rapidly, both by direct action and by omission to act. 
"Lord St. Vincent," wrote Minto in November, 1802, '4s 
more violent than anybody against the war, and has declared 
that he will resign if ministers dare go to war. His principal 
reason is, I believe, that the ships are so much out of repair 
as to be unfit for service." '' Lord Nelson," he says at the 
same period, "has been with me a long time to-day. He 
seems much of my mind on material points, but especially on 
the necessity of being better prepared than we now are." The 
admiral's own letters at this time make little allusion to 
the measures, or the neglects, which were rapidly undermining 
the efficiency of the fleet ; but a year after leaving England 
he wrote, "With all my personal regard for Lord St. Vincent, 
I am sorry to see that he has been led astray by the opinion of 
ignorant people. There is scarcely a thing he has done since 
he has been at the Admiralty that I have not heard him. 
reprobate before he came to the Board." 

Much as he enjoyed his home and desired peace, Nelson 
had never felt assured of its continuance. Like Great Britain 
herself during this repose, he rested with his arms at his side, 
ready for a call. The Prime Minister, Addington, has trans- 
mitted a curious story of the manner in which he exemplified 
his ideas of the proper mode of negotiating with Bonaparte. 
"It matters not at all," he said, taking up a poker, "in what 
way I lay this poker on the floor. But if Bonaparte should 
say it must be placed in this direction," suiting the action to 
the word, "we must instantly insist upon its being laid in 
some other one." At the same time Bonaparte, across the 
Channel, was illustrating in almost identical phrase the in- 
domitable energy that was common to these two men, the 
exponents of the two opposing and irreconcilable tendencies 
of their age. " If the British ministry should intimate that 
there was anything the First Consul had not done, because 
he was prevented from doing it, that instant he Avould do it." 
"You have proved yourself too true a prophet," wrote an oc- 
casional correspondent to Nelson, "for you have said ever 
since the peace that it could not be of long duration." Jar 
after jar, as Bonaparte drove his triumphal chariot over the 
prostrate continent, announced the instability of existing 



552 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

conditions ; and the speech from the throne on the 16fch of 
ISTovember, 1802, was distinctly ominous, if vague. Nelson 
then seconded the address in the House of Peers, in words 
so characteristic of his own temper, and of that then prevail- 
ing in the nation, that they serve to explain the strong ac- 
cord between him and it, and to show why he was so readily 
and affectionately distinguished as its representative hero. 
They are thus reported : — 

" I, ray Lords, have in different countries, seen much of the miser- 
ies of war. I am, therefore, in my inmost soul, a man of peace. Yet 
I would not, for the sake of any peace, however fortunate, consent to 
sacrifice one jot of England's honour. Our honour is inseparably 
combined with our genuine interest. Hitherto there has been nothing 
gi'eater known on the Continent than the faith, the untainted honour, 
the generous public sympathies, the high diplomatic influence, the 
commerce, the grandeur, the resistless power, the unconquerable 
valour of the British nation. Wherever I have served in foreign 
countries, 1 have witnessed these to be sentiments with which Britons 
were regarded. The advantages of such a reputation are not to be 
lightly brought into hazard. I, for one, rejoice that his Majesty has 
signified his intention to pay due regard to the connection between 
the interests of this country and the preservation of the liberties of 
Europe. It is satisfactoiy to know, that the preparations to main- 
tain our dignity in peace, ai-e not to be neglected. Those supplies 
which his Majesty shall for such purposes demand, his people will 
most earnestly grant. The nation is satisfied that the Government 
seeks in laeace or war no interest separate from that of the people at 
lai-ge ; and as the nation was pleased with that sincere spirit of peace 
with which the late treaty was negotiated, so, now that a restless and 
unjust ambition in those with whom we desired sincere amity has 
given a new alarm, the country will rather prompt the Government 
to assert its honour, than need to be I'oused to such measures of vig- 
orous defence as the exigency of the times may require." 

During the winter, Bonaparte, resentful of Great Britain's 
claim to a voice in the politics of the Continent, became more 
and more distinctly menacing in deed and word. On the 20th 
of February, 1803, in a message to the legislature, he made 
the imprudent, because useless, vaunt, '' This government 
says with just pride, England, alone, cannot to-day contend 
against France." Two days later Minto, who was in opposi- 
tion^ Avas told by Nelson, " in strict coniidence," that fop some 



DESIRES CONTINUANCE OF PEACE 553 

time back there had been great doubts between peace and 
war in the ministry. "One measure in contemplation has 
been to send him to the Mediterranean, by way of watching 
the armament and being ready if wanted. He says that he 
is thought the fitter for that delicate service, as on the one 
hand he wishes the continuance of peace, and therefore is not 
likely to precipitate matters, and on the other hand Bonaparte 
knows that if he hoists his flag it will not be in joke." It 
had for some time been arranged that, if war came, he was 
to have the Mediterranean command. 

On the 8th of March, 1803, the King sent a message to 
Parliament, that, in consequence of military preparations 
going on in the ports of France and Holland, he judged ex- 
pedient to adopt additional measures of precaution for the 
security of his dominions. While this was under discussion 
in the Upper House, Nelson, impressed with the idea that 
war must come, left his seat, and wrote to the Prime Minister 
the following line : " Whenever it is necessar}^, I am your 
Admiral." Yet he felt the tug at his heart-strings as he never 
had before. ''War or Peace ?" he writes to his old flag-cap- 
tain, Berry. " Every person has a different opinion. I fear 
perhaps the former, as I hope so much the latter." Only with 
large reservations would he now have repeated the rule Cod- 
rington tells us he inculcated, — "that every man became a 
bachelor after passing the Rock of Gibraltar, and he was not 
very tardy in showing that he practised Avhat he preached. 
Honour, glory and distinction were the whole object of his 
life, and that dear domestic happiness never abstracted his 
attention." He did, indeed, rail at marriage ^ during his last 
cruise, now fast approaching ; but his passionate devotion to 
Lady Hamilton, and his yearning for home, knew- no abate- 
ment. Yet, through all and over all, the love of glory and 
the sense of honor continued to the last to reign suj)reme. 
" Government cannot be more anxious for my departure," he 
tells St. Vincent, " than I am, if a war, to go." 

Meantime the necessary preparations were quietly progress- 
ing, while the diplomatic discussions with France became 
more and more bitter and hopeless, turning mainly on the 

1 This habit is mentioned by Captain James Hillyar, for extracts from 
whose journals the author is indebted to Admiral Sir W. R. Mends, G. C. B. 



554 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

question of Malta, though the root of the trouble lay far 
deeper. The " Victory," of a hundred guns, was named for 
Nelson's flag, her officers appointed, and the ship commis- 
sioned. On the 6th of May he received orders to prepare for 
departure. On the 12th the British ambassador left Paris, 
having handed in the Government's ultimatum and demanded 
his passports. On the 16th Great Britain declared war against 
France, and the same day Nelson at the Admiralty received 
his commission as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. 
Within forty-eight hours he joined the " Victory " at Ports- 
mouth, and on the 20th sailed for his station. 

Thus ended the longest period of retirement enjoyed by 
Nelson, from the opening of the war with France, in 1793, 
until his death in 1805. During it, besides the separation 
from Lady Nelson, two great breaks occurred in his personal 
ties and surroundings. One was the death of his father, on 
the 26th of April, 1802, at the age of seventy-nine. There 
had been no breach in the love between the two, but it seems 
to the author impossible to overlook, in the guarded letters of 
the old man to his famous son, a tinge of regret and disapproval 
for the singular circumstances under which he saw fit to live. 
That he gladly accepted the opinion professed by many friends, 
naval and others, and carefully fostered by the admiral, that 
his relations with Lady Hamilton were perfectly innocent, 
is wholly probable ; but, despite the usual silence concerning 
his own views, observed by himself and Nelson, two clues to 
his thought and action appear in his letters. One is the re- 
mark, already quoted, that gratitude required him to spend 
some of his time with Lady Nelson. The other, singular and 
suggestive, is the casual "mention to Nelson, on October 8, 
1801, that he had received an anonymous letter, containing 
" severe reproaches for my conduct to you, which is such, it 
seems, as will totally separate us." ^ In whose interest would 
snch a letter most likely be penned ? On the 17th of October 
he wrote Lady Nelson that he ought to be able to stay with 
her without offending his children ; but she, with great mag- 
nanimity, for his countenance meant much to her, advised a 
separation, because the deprivation of seeing his own family 
was cruel. In the event, he visited Merton in November, and 
1 Morrison Collection, No. 632, October 8, 1801. 



DEATH or HAMILTON 555 

it has been said, upon the authority of Lady Hamilton, that 
he intended to make it his home ; but going to Bath for the 
winter, he there died. Nelson mourned him sincerely, but 
was prevented by illness from being present at the funeral. 
He is a man known to us only by his letters, which are marked 
by none of the originality that distinguishes the professional 
utterances of the admiral, and cannot be said to rise much 
above the commonplace ; but they show a strong and un- 
affected piety, and a cheerful, resolute acceptance of the infirm- 
ities of protracted old age, which possess charm and inspire 
respect. There is also a clear indication of the firmness that 
characterized Nelson himself, in the determination, amid all 
the feebleness of age, and notwithstanding his pride and love 
for his famous son, upon whom, too, he was partially depend- 
ent, that he would not abandon the wife, to whom he con- 
tinued to write. His attitude in this regard, as far as can be 
inferred from his letters, commands sympathy and admiration. 
A year later, on the 6th of April, 1803, Sir AVilliam Hamil- 
ton also died, "in Lady Hamilton's and my arms," wrote 
Nelson, " without a sigh or a struggle. The world never lost 
a more upright and accomplished gentleman." Lady Hamil- 
ton, with ready tears, recorded : " Unhappy day for the forlorn 
Emma. Ten minutes past ten dear blessed Sir William 
left me." The grouping of figures and emotions at that death- 
bed was odd almost beyond comprehension ; one of the most 
singular studies which human nature has presented to itself 
of its powers of self-cajolement. A man systematically de- 
ceived, yet apparently sincerely regarded, and affectionately 
tended to the last by his betrayers, one of whom at least 
prided himself, and for the most part not unjustly, upon his 
fidelity to his friends. Hamilton, alone among the three, 
seems to have been single-minded — to have viewed their 
mutual relations to the end, not with cynical indifference, but 
with a simplicity of confidence hard to be understood in a man 
of his antecedents. It may have been, however, that he 
recognized the inevitable in the disparity of years and in his 
Avife's early training, and that he chose to cover her failings 
with a self-abnegation which was not Avithout nobility. Upon 
such a tacit affirmation he set a final seal in a codicil to his 
will, well calculated to silence those who saw scandal in the 



656 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

association between his wife and his friend. "The copy of 
Madam Le Brunn's picture of Emma, in enamel, by Bone, I 
give to my dearest friend Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte, a very 
small token of the great regard I liave for his Lordship, the 
most virtuous, loyal, and truly brave character I ever met 
with. God bless him, and shame fall on those who do not say 
amen." 

Sir William's death, by withdrawing the husband's coun- 
tenance to Nelson's remaining nnder the same roof, might 
have complicated matters for the two lovers, but the outbreak 
of war necessitated the admiral's departure a month later. 
When he returned to England for the last time, in August, 
1805, he was, deservedly, the object of such wide-spread 
popular devotion, and his stay was so short, that the voice of 
censure was hushed amid the general murmur of affectionate 
admiration. The noble qualities of the man, the exalted spirit 
of self-sacrifice and heroic aspiration that breathed in his 
utterances, and was embodied, not only in his brilliant deeds, 
but in the obscure, patient endurance of the last two years, 
evoked a sentiment which spread over him and her a haze of 
tender sympathy that still survives. In the glory of Trafalgar, 
in his last touching commendation of her and his child to the 
British Government, in the general grief of the nation, there 
was justly no room to remember their fault; both acquaintance 
and strangers saAV in her only the woman whom he loved to 
the end. The sisters of Nelson, women of mature years and 
irreproachable character, maintained a correspondence with 
Lady Hamilton during their lives ; long after his death, and 
the departure of his influence, removed any interested motive 
for courting her friendship. Between them and Lady Nelson, 
on the other hand, the breach was final. Their occasional 
mention of her is unfriendly, and upon the whole contemptu- 
ous ; while she, as far as can be judged from their letters, 
returned to them an equal measure of disdain. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. — The Long Watch 
OFF Toulon. — Occupations of a Commander-in-Chief. 

May, 1803- January, 1805. Age, 45-46. 

WHEN Nelson, after a three years' absence, returned to 
the Mediterranean in 1803, he found the conditions, 
upon which the military balance of power there depended, 
greatly altered from those he had known during the period of 
his previous service. He had been present, indeed, almost 
an eye-witness, at the tremendous reverse associated with the 
name of Marengo, for that battle, it will be remembered, was 
fought while he was at Leghorn on his return to England ; 
but Marengo, and the conventions following it, were at the 
moment only the beginning of an end which then could not 
be foreseen. 

The most significant token of the entire change of condi- 
tions — of the predominant, far-reaching, and firmly fastened 
grip of Erance on the land — was the presence of an army 
corps of fifteen thousand men in the extreme southeast of 
Italy, occupying the Kingdom of Naples from the river 
Ofanto, on the Adriatic coast, round to the Bradano on the 
Gulf of Taranto, and including the useful ports of Brindisi 
and Taranto. This distant and ex-ceutric extension of the 
arms of the Republic bespoke Bonaparte's confidence in tlie 
solidity of his situation in the South of Europe; for under 
previous circumstances, even after his victorious campaign of 
1796, he had always deprecated an occupation of Naples, and 
relied upon threats and a display of force to insure the quies- 
cence of that state. That one of his first steps, upon the 
renewal of war with Great Britain, should have been to place 
a large body of troops in a position he once considered so ex- 
posed, shows the fulness of his conviction that upon the Con- 
tinent he had, for the moment, nothing to fear from the other 



558 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Great Powers. Strongly stirred as they had been by his high- 
handed aggressions, none as yet ventured to call him directly 
to account. Great Britain, the least immediately affected, had 
stepped into the lists, and demanded not only that aggression 
should cease, but that the state of the Continent should be 
restored as it existed when she signed the treaty of Amiens. 
With this requirement she maintained the war, single-handed, 
from May, 1803, to the autumn of 1805. 

It was not without reason that Bonaparte reckoned upon 
the inaction of the Continent. Austria, although profoundly 
discontented by much he had done since the peace of Lune- 
ville, in 1801, was too thoroughly disheartened and exhausted 
by the unsuccessful and protracted struggle which preceded 
it, to be ready to renew the strife. Limited as she now was, 
by the treaty, to the eastern bank of the Adige, there was in 
Northern Italy no force to threaten the French communica- 
tions, between their divisions in the valley of the Po and the 
one at the heel of the peninsula. Prussia, playing a double 
part for years back, seeking from day to day the favor of the 
most powerful, was wholly committed for the time to the 
First Consul ; while Russia, although her youthful sovereign 
had abandoned the anti-British policy of his predecessor, re- 
mained undecided as to the general course she should pursue 
amid the ever-shifting perplexities of the day. Less fantastic 
in imagination than his insane father, Alexander I. inherited 
a visionary tendency, which hindered practical action, and 
showed itself in plans too vast and complicated for realiza- 
tion, even when two rulers of the overwhelming power of 
himself and Napoleon, at "a later date, set their hands to the 
task. Swayed, alternately, by sympathy with the ancient 
order of things, which Great Britain for the moment repre- 
sented, and by prospects of Russian aggrandizement, which 
Bonaparte dangled before his eyes, the Czar halted between 
two opinions, pleasing himself, meanwhile, in weaving, with 
associates of his own age, schemes for a general reorganization 
of Europe. In these the interests of Russia naturally, and 
quite properly, had a leading part, and not least in those seas 
and regions that fell within the limits of Nelson's command. 

The power of the great states which lay to the northward 
and eastward of him being thus neutralized, Bonaparte found 



1 



H. M. Ships " Agamemnon," " Captain," " Vanguard," 
" Elephant," and " Victory." 

From an engraving by Fittler, after the painting by N'- Pocock. 



I 



rOLITICAL CONDITIONS, 1803 559 

upon the land nothing to oppose his will, or to contest his 
influence, in the smaller and weaker nations to the southward 
and westward, close to his own doors, but isolated from the 
rest of Europe, except by sea — a weighty exception. Spain, 
reduced to virtual vassalage in the previous war, no longer 
even pretended to dispute his orders. She was not engaged 
in the present hostilities, simply because it suited him better 
to take a money tribute from her, and to enjoy for French 
ships the benevolent neutrality of Spanish ports, more neces- 
sary to them than to the British. Moreover, if Spain joined 
in the war, Minorca, restored to her at the peace, would be at 
the mercy of Great Britain, and Port INIahon, the fine haven 
of that island, was always a menace to Toulon. The harbors 
of remote Portugal, where Lisbon formerly had given power- 
ful support to the British fleet, were now closed to it for 
offensive operations ; and Nelson, within w^hose command its 
seaboard lay, was strictly enjoined to refrain from any such 
use of them, even from sending in prizes, except under stress 
of weather. In Italy, Piedmont had been incorporated with 
B'rauce, while the Italian and Ligurian (Genoa) Republics in 
the North were so identified with her in action, and so sub- 
missive to her, that the capture of the latter's ships was at 
once ordered by Nelson ; and he recommended to his Govern- 
ment that a formal blockade should be proclaimed of her 
ports, as well as of. Leghorn, where the French flag was flown 
on the same staff as the Tuscan. The States of the Pope, in- 
termediate between these tributaries of Bonaparte in the 
North and his garrisoned province in Naples, enjoyed only 
such precarious independence as he from day to day allowed. 
But, mighty as was the growth of French ascendency, as 
shown by these changes, the very advantages accruing to 
France from her advanced maritime positions laid her further 
open to the Sea Power of Great Britain. The neutrality of 
Genoa and Tuscany could no longer embarrass the British 
admiral, as it had Nelson in 1795 and 1796. Offensive opera- 
tions against them were now merely a question of adequate 
force, and the South of France depended greatly upon free 
access to their ports. Taking Piedmont from the King of 
Sardinia, too, relieved any scruples the British might have 
concerning their use of the island of Sardinia injuring a 



560 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

friendly monarch, a consideration which kept them away 
from Sicily. 

Nelson, instructed by the experience and observation of the 
recent past, and by a certain prescient sagacity which was at 
once native and cultivated in him, recognized that the Medi- 
terranean, with its immense indented coast line, its positions 
of critical importance, — such as the Straits of Gibraltar and 
the Bosphorus, Egypt and Malta, — and its comparatively 
short water distances, was the field of operations to which the 
maritime ambitions of Bonaparte, debarred a wider flight by 
the sea-power of Great Britain, must inevitably incline. To 
this contributed also its remoteness from England, as well as 
its nearness to France and to the ports subject to her influence 
in Italy and Spain ; while the traditional ambitions of French 
rulers, for three centuries back, had aspired to control in the 
Levant, and had regarded Turkey for that reason as a natural 
ally. It was, therefore, not merely as magnifying his own 
office, nor yet as the outcome of natural bias, resulting fi*om 
long service in its waters, that Nelson saw in the Mediter- 
ranean the region at once for defence and offence against 
Bonaparte ; where he might be most fatally checked, and 
where also he might be induced most surely to steps exhaus- 
tive to his strength. This conviction was, indeed, rather an 
instance of accurate intuition than of formulated reasoning. 
Clear, ample, and repeated, as are his demonstrations of the 
importance of the various positions at stake, and of the meas- 
ures necessary to be taken, they rather apply to the necessities 
of the moment than indicate a wide scheme of policy, which 
should divert the energies of the enemy to the South of 
Europe, and so provide the best of defences against his pro- 
jected invasion of England. Yet even of such broader view 
tokens are not wanting. " To say the truth," he writes to 
the Queen of Naples, " I do not believe we had in the last 
war, and, according to all appearance, Ave shall not have in 
the present one either, plans of a sufficiently grand scale to 
force France to keep within her proper limits. Small meas- 
ures produce only small results. The intelligent mind of your 
Majesty will readily comprehend the great things which might 
be effected in the Mediterranean. On this side Buonaparte is 
the most vulnerable. It is from here that it would be the 



II 



MILITARY CONDITIONS, 1803 561 

most easy to mortify his pride, and so far humble him, as to 
make him accept reasonable conditions of peace." 

It caniiot be claimed, however, that there entered into Nel- 
son's thoughts, for Italy, any such diversion as that by which 
the Spanish Peninsular War some years later drained the life 
blood of France. The time, indeed, was not yet ripe, nor 
would the scene have been in any v/ay as favorable to Great 
Britain ; and, moreover, so far from being ready to threaten, 
her energies were effectually constrained to her own defence, 
by the superior audacity and direct threats of Bonaparte. 
Even the limited suggestions for the employment of troops 
in the Mediterranean, made by Nelson from time to time, 
failed to receive attention, and he himself was left to struggle 
on as best he might, with inadequate means and upon a bare 
defensive, even in naval matters. Great Britain, in short, 
had stripped herself, incautiously, so bare, and was so alarmed 
by the French demonstrations of invasion, that she for the 
moment could think only of the safety of her territory and of 
her home waters, and her offensive operations were confined 
to the sea. 

Bonaparte understood as fully as Nelson the importance of 
the Mediterranean to him. His mind Avas set upon the exten- 
sion of France's dominion therein, — in its islands, upon its 
northern and southern shores, and in the East ; nor was he 
troubled with scruples as to the means by which that object 
might be attained. During the short peace of Amiens, Lord 
Keitli had felt it necessary to take precautions against the re- 
occupation of Corfu by the French troops ; and again at a 
later date had stationed a ship for the same purpose at the 
Madalena Islands, belonging to Sardinia, which Nelson after- 
Avards made a rendezvous for his fleet. Algiers, too, had at- 
tracted the First Consul's attention. " Algiers will be French 
in one year after a peace," wrote Nelson in August, 1804. 
" You see it, and a man may run and read ; that is the plan 
of Buonaparte." " The Ministers of the Dey must know, that 
an armament at Toulon, and a large army, after the peace 
with Great Britain, was intended to land and plunder Algiers, 
which they doubtless would have effected, had not a British 
fleet been placed in Oristan Bay [Sardinia] to watch their mo- 
tions." These and similar reasons had led the British Gov- 

36 



562 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

eminent to maintain the Mediterranean Squadron nearly upon 
a war footing during the peace. But, if Bonaparte's purpose 
was fixed to control the Mediterranean some day, it now was 
set also upon the invasion of England; and although he 
looked and plotted in many directions, taking long views, and 
neglecting no opportunity to secure advanced footholds for 
future uses, he had not yet reached the stage in his develop- 
ment when he would divide his energies between two gigantic 
undertakings. One at a time, and with an accumulation of 
force abundantly adequate to the end in view, was his policy 
all the days of Nelson. The Mediterranean with its varied 
interests was to him at this time one of several means, by 
which he hoped to distract British counsels and to dissever 
British strength ; but it was no part of his design to provoke 
Great Britain to measures which would convert her alarm for 
the Mediterranean peninsulas into open war with them, or in 
them, compelling France either to recede from thence, or to 
divert thither a force that might weaken his main effort. His 
aim was to keep anxiety keenly alive, and to cut short the 
resources of his enemy, by diplomatic pressure upon neutral 
states, up to the last extreme that could be borne without war 
against them being declared, as the lesser evil ; and the nearer 
he could approach this delicate boundary line, Avithout cross- 
ing it, the greater his success. " I do not chink a Spanish 
war [that is, a declaration by Spain] so near," wrote Nelson 
in November, 1803. " We are more likely to go to war Avith 
Spain for her complaisance to the French ; but the French can 
gain nothing, but be great losers, by forcing Spain to go to 
war with us; therefore, I never expect that the Spaniards 
will begin, unless Buonaparte is absolutely mad, as many say 
he is. I never can believe that he or his counsellors are such 
fools as to force Spain to begin." 

The course instinctively advocated by Nelson, transpiring 
through occasional utterances, was directly contrary to Bona- 
parte's aims and Avould have marred his game. " We never 
wanted ten thousand troops more than at this moment," Nel- 
son Avrote shortly after he had reached the station and become 
acquainted Avith the state of affairs. "They might save 
Naples, Sicily, the INlorea and Egypt, by assisting and giving 
confidence to the inhabitants." "It has been my plan to 



NELSON'S MILITARY VIEWS, 1803 563 

have 10,000 disposable troops in the Mediterranean," he wrote 
to Acton ; and he regretted to the Ministry that they shoukl 
have withdrawn all the fine army which had regained Egypt 
in 1801. " The sending them home," he remarked to an oc- 
casional correspondent, '' was a very inconsiderate measure, to 
say nothing further of it." His idea was to garrison Gaeta 
and Naples on the coast of the mainland, and Messina in^ 
Sicily ; and to throw a force into tlie mountains of Calabria, 
which should sustain and give cohesion to the insurrection 
that he confidently expected would follow. With the British 
fleet covering the approaches by water, and sustaining and 
reinforcing garrisons in the ports, there would be imposed 
upon the enemy, unless he chose to abandon Southern Italy, a 
scene of operations in a distant, difficult country, with a long 
and narrow line of communications, flanked throughout by the 
sea, and particularly by the two fortified harbors which he 
proposed to occupy. " The peasantry would, I believe, defend 
their mountains, and at least it would give a check to the 
movements of the French, and give us time to get a fleet into 
the Mediterranean." That the attempt would have been 
ultimately successful, against such power as Napoleon then 
wielded, cannot be affirmed ; but, uiitil put down, it neces- 
sarily would have engaged a force very disproportionate to its 
own numbers, drawing off in great part the army destined 
against England, as it was diverted two years later by Austria, 
and giving opportunity for changes in the political conditions, 
even to the formation of a new Coalition. 

Nelson, therefore, was not far from right in reasoning that 
the Mediterranean should, and therefore Avould, be the chief 
scene of operations. In Bonaparte's eyes, to invade Britain 
was, justly, the greatest of all ends, the compassing of which 
would cause all the rest to fall. Nelson, weighing the diffi- 
culties of that enterprise more accurately than could be done 
by one unaccustomed to the sea, doubted the reality of the 
intention, and thought it more consonant to the true policy of 
France to seize control of the Mediterranean, by a sudden con- 
centration of her fleets, and then to transport her troops by 
water to the heel of Italy, to the Ionian Islands, to the Morea, 
to Egypt. So stationed, with fortified stepping-stones rising 
at short intervals from the deep, future movements of troops 



564 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and supplies from point to point would be but an affair of 
coasters, slipping from battery to battery, such as he had 
experienced to his cost in the Riviera. In this project he 
thought it likely that France could secure the co-operation of 
Russia, by allowing the latter her share of the spoils of Q'ur- 
key, especially in Constantinople. He saw, indeed, that the 
, partition would involve some difficulty between the two part- 
ners, and in his correspondence he attributes the Morea and 
the islands, now to one, now to the other ; but the prediction, 
elicited piece-meal from his letters, received a close fulfilment 
four years later in the general tenor of the agreements of 
Tilsit, nor Avas it less accurate in its dim prophecy of a 
disagreement. 

Such, in broad outline, were the prepossessions and views 
Nelson took with him from England in 1803, as modified by 
the information he received upon reaching the station ; and 
such the counter-projects of Bonaparte, to whom belonged, 
as the privilege of the offensive, the choice of direction for 
his attack. The essential difference between the two was, 
that one believed the invasion of England, however difficult, 
to be possible, and therefore to be the true and first object of 
his efforts ; while the other, without pronouncing that attempt 
impossible, saw its difficulties so clearly, that he conceived his 
enemy must be aiming for the Mediterranean from the begin- 
ning. It is permissible to remark that Bonaparte, after the 
failure of the invasion, first busied himself in reducing Aus- 
tria, Prussia, and Russia, successively, to the state of inaction 
in which they were in 1803 ; next came to an understanding 
with the latter, such as Nelson had foreseen ; and then turned 
to the Mediterranean, where he established his own rule in 
Naples, in the Ionian Islands, on the eastern shore of the 
Adriatic, and finally in the Spanish peninsula. Beyond that 
his advance was stayed by the Sea Power of Great Britain, 
which at last wrought his ruin. Thus in the event the 
predictions of the British admiral were postponed, but not 
falsified. 

Nelson's characteristic impatience and energy hurried him 
on from the moment he took up his command. " I cannot 
sail before to-morrow," he said repeatedly in Portsmouth, 
" and that 's an age." "■ If the Devil stands at the door," he 



PASSAGE TO MEDITERRANEAN, 1803 565 

tells St. Vincent, " we shall sail to-morrow forenoon." The 
Admiralty, in its primary anxiety about Brest, imposed upon 
him a delay under which he chafed angrily. He was directed 
to meet off that port the squadron of Admiral Cornwallis, in 
order that, if the latter wanted the " A^ictory," she might be 
left there, and an intimation was even given that he was " on 
no account to pass Admiral Cornwallis, so as to run any 
chance of his being deprived of the services of the Victory, 
if he should judge it necessary to detain her." Nelson re- 
sented the implication that he was capable of evading an 
order, like a frigate-captain parting company to better his 
chance of prize-money. " I beg to assure you that I hold it 
impossible for any officer, under such orders as their Lordships' 
to me, to designedly miss Admiral Cornwallis off Brest." 

On the 22d of May he was off Ushant, between which and 
Cornwallis's rendezvous he passed twenty-four hours, fuming 
and fretting over a delay that was losing him a fresh, fair, 
northerly wind ; the more so, that he was satisfied Cornwallis 
neither needed nor wanted the ship. " From his conduct," — 
not being on his rendezvous, — "I am clear there can be 
nothing in Brest to demand his attention." On the 23d, how- 
ever, he could stand it no longer. "What a wind we are 
losing ! " " If the wisdom of my superiors had not prevented 
me," he growled, "at this moment I should have been off the 
coast of Portugal. I am aware of the importance of my get- 
ting to the Mediterranean, and think I might safely have been 
allowed to proceed in the Victory." At 6 p.m. of that day, 
Cornwallis not turning up, he tumbled himself and his suite 
on board the frigate " Amphion," which was in compan}'-, and 
continued his voyage, going out in all the discomfort of " a 
convict," to use St. Vincent's expression ; " seven or eight 
sleeping in one cabin," as jSTelson himself described it. " It 
is against my own judgment but in obedience to orders," he 
told the Earl ; while to the Prime Minister, with whom he 
was in personal correspondence, he lamented the loss, " for I 
well know the weight of the Victory in the Mediterranean." 
As he anticipated, Cornwallis did not Avant the ship, and she 
joined Nelson two months afterwards off Toulon. 

Late in the evening of June 3d, the " Amphion " anchored 
at Gibraltar, whither she brought the first certain news of 



566 THE LITE OF NELSON 

the war, tlioiigh it had been dechxred nearly three weeks be- 
fore. The next day was actively employed in giving neces- 
sary instructions to the yard officials, and detailing cruisers 
to guard the entrance to the Straits, and to maintain the 
communications with the Barbary coast, upon which the Eock 
depended for supplies of fresh provisions. At 4 p. m. the 
ship again sailed for Malta, accompanied by the frigate 
'' ]\[aidstone," to which, on the 11th of June, was transferred, 
for direct passage to Naples by the north of Sicily, the new 
British minister to the Two Sicilies, Mr. Elliot, who had em- 
barked with jSTelson on board the "Victory,'' and afterwards 
gone with him to the '• Amphion." Throughout the following 
two years an active correspondence, personal and diplomatic, 
Avas maintained with this gentleman, who, like his brother, 
Lord Minto, placed the utmost dependence upon the political 
sagacity and tact of the admiral. When the latter, a year 
later, spoke of leaving the station on account of his health, 
Elliot wrote to him : ^' Where such great interests are con- 
cerned, I shall not presume to dwell upon my own feelings, 
although I cannot but recall to your Lordship that I only 
consented to depart as abruptly as I did from England, to 
undertake this arduous and ruinous mission, from the expec- 
tation that my efforts to direct the councils of this Kingdom 
would have been seconded by your pre-eminent talents and 
judgment.'' After the two frigates parted, the " Amphion " 
kept on to Malta, where she arrived on the loth of June. 

With the separation of the '• Maidstone " Nelson began the 
extensive diplomatic correspondence, which employed so much 
of his time during this command, and through which we are 
made familiar with the workings of his mind on the general 
political conditions of the Mediterranean. She carried from 
him letters to the King and Queen of the Sicilies, to their 
Prime Minister, Acton, and to the British minister to the 
Court of Sardinia. To these succeeded, upon his arrival in 
]\Ialta, — as a better j^oint of departure for the farther East, 
now that the French held the west coast of the Adriatic, — 
despatches to the British minister to the Porte, to the Grand 
Vizier and the Capitan Pacha, to the Republic of the Seven 
Islands, as the group of Corfu and its sisters was now styled, 
and to the British representative to their government. 



VIEWS CONCERNING NAPLES 567 

All these communications were, of course, tentative, based 
upon a yet imperfect knowledge of conditions. For the most 
part they conveyed, besides the notification of his having 
taken the command, chiefly general assurances of the good- 
will of the writer's government, and an undefined intimation 
that all had best be on their guard against French scheming 
and aggressions. To Naples he spoke more definitely, and 
indicated at once the considerations that would dictate his 
course, and, he intimated, should control theirs also. He 
had been instructed, he said, to consider the welfare of the 
Two Sicilies as one of the first of British objects, and his 
Government . was convinced of the advantages that would 
accrue both to Sicily and Naples, if their neutrality could be 
maintained. They had to do, however, Avith an enemy that 
was not only powerful, but wily and unscrupulous; one whose 
action would be governed wholly by considerations of interest 
and expediency, not by those of right. Great Britain could 
not, probably, keep the French out of Naples, but she could 
out of Sicily, provided, and only provided, Messina was ade- 
quately garrisoned and held. If, however, there was any 
hasty overt action taken, looking to the security of Sicily, it 
might merely precipitate the seizui'c of Naples and the entire 
conquest of the King's continental dominions ; or, " ten times 
more humiliating," leave him "an odious commissary to raise 
contributions from his unhappy subjects for the French." 
On the other hand, if, to avert suspicion, there was too much 
slackness in the measures to guard vSicily, Messina might be 
suddenly seized, the gates of the island thus thrown open, 
and, Sicily once lost, '' JS^aples foils ofcovrse." "It is a most 
important point," he wrote to Elliot soon after, "to decide 
when Sicily ought to be placed in a state of security. For 
the present, I am content to say that Messina need not be 
taken possession of ; but the strictest watch must be kept by 
Sir John Acton that we are not lulled into a fatal security, 
and thus lose both Kingdoms. To save for the moment 
Naples, we risk the two Kingdoms, and General Acton must 
join me in this heavy responsibility." " My whole opinion 
rests in these few words — that tee must not risk Sicily too far 
ill trying to save Naples ; therefore, General Acton, yourself 
and myself must keep a good loolcoutJ' 



568 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

This summed up the conditions for Naples during the long 
two years of watching and waiting, while Bonaparte, concen- 
trating his purposes upon his invasion scheme, was content to 
leave things quiet in the South. To check, as far as might be, 
the designs of the French towards Morea or towards Sicily, 
on either side of the central position they held at the heel of 
Italy, Nelson employed a proportionately large number of 
cruisers — five — between Messina and the mouth of the 
Adriatic ; while, to provide for the safety of the royal family, 
he kept always a ship-of-the-line in the Bay of Naples, the 
British minister holding orders for her captain to embark 
them at a moment's notice, and take them to Sicily. "I have 
kept everything here to save Italy, if in my power," he wi'ote 
Elliot two months later, " and you know I was ordered to send 
a squadron outside the Straits. Fourteen days ago, a French 
sevent^^-four got into Cadiz from Santo Domingo, and two 
French frigates, with some merchant ships. AYhat will they 
say at home ? However, I feel I have done right, and care 
not." "I must place a squadron between Elba and Genoa," 
he says again, "to prevent that expedition from moving, and 
also send some ships to the Straits' mouth, and keep enough 
to watch the ships in Toulon. These are all imjDortant objects, 
but nothing when compared to the security of the Sicilies." 

Nelson's anxiety for Sicily threw him again into contact 
with an instance of that rigid and blind conformity to orders 
which always exasperated him. He had brought out direc- 
tions to the general commanding in Malta, to hold a detach- 
ment of two thousand British troojDS in readiness to go at once 
to Messina, on the appearance of danger, and to garrison the 
works there, if he thought they could be spared from the de- 
fence of Malta. Nelson told the Prime Minister that discre- 
tion, as to such a step, was a responsibility greater than the 
average officer could bear, and would certainly defeat the 
object in view ; for he would never feel his charge secure 
enough to permit such a diminution. There was at this time 
in Malta a body of Neapolitan soldiers, which had been sent 
there during the peace of Amiens, in accordance with a stip- 
ulation of the treaty. The general received an order to send 
them to Messina. Nelson had pointed out to him that if 
he did so, in the divided state of feeling in the Neapolitan 



ANXIETY ABOUT SICILY 569 

dominions, and with the general character of Neapolitan 
officers, for both efficiency and fidelity, the citadel Avould not 
be safe from betrayal at their hands. " I have requested him 
to keep the orders secret, and not to send them ; for if they 
got into Messina, they would qertainly not keep the French 
out one moment, and it would give a good excuse for not ask- 
ing us to secure INIessina." -'If General Acton sends for 
them we must submit ; but at present we need not find means 
of sending them away." The British general, however, sent 
them over, and then the Neapolitan governor, as Nelson fore- 
told, said it was quite unnecessary for any British to come. 
"I must apprise you," wrote Nelson to Addington, "that 
General Villettes, although a most excellent officer, will do 
nothing but what he receives, ' You are hereby required and 
directed ; ' for to obey, is with him the very acme of discipline. 
With respect to Sicily, I have no doubt but that the French 
will have it. My former reasons for inducing General Vil- 
lettes to keep the Neapolitan troops in Malta, was to prevent 
what has happened ; but, in a month after my back was turned, 
Villettes obeyed his orders, and now the Governor of Messina 
says, ' We can defend it, and want no assistance.' His whole 
conduct, I am bold to say, is either that of a traitor or a fool." ^ 
Upon his own subordinates Nelson laid a distinct charge, 
that he should expect them to use their judgment and act 
upon it with independence, sure of his generous construction 
and support of their action. -'We must all in our several 
stations," he tells one of them, " exert ourselves to the utmost, 
and not be nonsensical in saying, ' I have an order for this, 
that, and the other,' if the King's service clearly marks what 
ought to be done. I am well convinced of your zeal." In 
accordance with this, he was emphatic in his expressions of 
commendation for action rightly taken ; a bare, cold approval 
was not adequate reward for deeds which he expected to repro- 
duce his own spirit and temper, vivifying the whole of his 
command, and making his presence virtually co-extensive with 
its utmost limits. No severer condemnation, perhaps, was 
ever implied by him, than when he wrote to Sidney Smith, 
unqualifiedly, " I strictly charge and command you never to 

1 This sentence refers to the governor ; not to Villettes^ as the construc- 
tion ini''lit indicate. 



570 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



give any French ship or man leave to quit Egypt." To deny 
an officer discretion was as scathing an expression of dissatis- 
faction as Nelson could utter; and as he sowed, so he reaped, 
in a devotion and vigor of service few have elicited equally. 

In Malta Nelson remained but thirty-six hours. Arriving 
at 4 p. M. on the evening of June 15th, he sailed again at 
4 A. M. of the 17th. He had expected partly to find the fleet 
there ; but by an odd coincidence, on the same day that he 
hoisted his flag in Portsmouth, it had sailed, although in 
ignorance of the war, to cruise between Sicily and Naples ; 
whence, on the day he left Gibraltar, the commanding officer. 
Sir Eichard Bickerton, had started for Toulon, — " very judi- 
ciously/' said Nelson, — the instant he heard of the renewal 
of hostilities. 

The " Amphiou " passed through the Straits of Messina, 
and within sight of Naples, carrying Nelson once more over 
well-known seas, and in sight of fondly remembered places. 
'• I am looking at dear Naples, if it is what it was," he wrote 
to Elliot from off Capri. " Close to Capri," he tells Lady 
Hamilton, '-'the view of Vesuvius calls so many circumstances 
to my mind, that it almost overpowers my feelings." "I 
am using force upon myself to keep away," he had already 
said to Acton ; " for I think it likely, was I to fly to Naples, 
which I am much inclined to do, that the French might turn 
it to some plea against those good sovereigns." In his anxiety 
to join the fleet, and get in touch of the French, the length of 
the passage, three weeks, caused him great vexation, and 
deepened his convictions of the uselessness of the island to 
his squadron oft" Toulon. '' My opinion of Malta, as a naval 
station for watching the French in Toulon, is well known; and 
my present experience of what Avill be a three weeks' passage, 
most fully confirms me in it. The fleet can never go there, if 
I can find any other corner to put them in ; but having said this, 
I now declare, that I consider Malta as a most important out- 
work to India, that it will ever give us great influence in the 
Levant, and indeed all the southern parts of Italy. In this 
view, I hope we shall never give it up." " IMalta and Toulon 
are entirely different services. It takes upon an average seven 
weeks to get an answer to a letter. When I am forced to send 
a sliip there, I never see her under two months," 



MALTA AN IMPORTANT BASE 571 



With Gibraltar, however, Malta gave the British two 
impregnable and secure bases of operations, within reason- 
able distance of one another, and each in close proximity to 
points most essential to control. During Nelson's entire com- 
mand, the three chief centres of interest and of danger were 
the Straits of Gibraltar, the heel of Italy, and Toulon. The 
narrowing of the trade routes near the two former rendered 
them points of particular exposure for merchant shipping. 
Around them, therefore, and in dependence upon them, 
gathered the largest bodies of the cruisers which kept down 
privateering, and convoyed the merchant ships, whose pro- 
tection was not the least exacting of the many cares that fell 
upon Nelson. Upon the Malta division depended also the 
watch over the mouth of the Adriatic and the Straits of 
Messina, by which Nelson hoped to prevent the passage of the 
French, in small bodies, to either Sicily, the Morea, or the 
Ionian islands. Malta in truth, even in Nelson's time, was 
the base for operations only less important than the destruc- 
tion of the Toulon fleet. The latter he rightly .considered his 
principal mission, success in which would solve most other 
maritime difficulties. " My lirst object must ever be to keep 
the French fleet in check ; and, if they put to sea, to have 
force enough with me to annUiilate them. That would keep 
the Two Sicilies free from any attack from sea." 

On the 8th of July the '-'Amphion" joined the fleet off 
Toulon. It numbered then nine ships-of-the-line, with three 
smaller cruisers. " As far as outside show goes," he reported to 
St. Vincent, •' the ships look very well ; but they complain of 
their bottoms, and are very short of men." The fact was, as 
he afterwards explained, that before the war came they had 
been expecting every day to go to England, and conseqiiently 
had been allowed to run down gradually, a result which 
doubtless had been hastened by St. Vincent's stringent econo- 
mies. Gibraltar and Malta were both bare, Nelson wrote six 
months later, and it was not the fault of the naval storekeepers. 
The ships, everywhere, were "distressed for almost every 
article. They have entirely eat up their stores, and their real 
Avants not half complied with. I have applications from the 
different line-of-battle-ships for surveys on most of their sails 
and running rigging, which cannot be complied with, as there 



572 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

is neither cordage nor sails to replace the unserviceable stores, 
and, therefore, the evil must be combated in the best manner 
possible." As the Avhole Navy had suffered from the same 
cause, there was no reserve of ships at home to replace those 
in the Mediterranean, which, besides lacking everything, were 
between eight and nine hundred men short of their comple- 
ment, or about one hundred for each ship-of-the-line. "We 
can send you neither ships nor men," wrote St. Vincent as 
winter drew on ; and even a year later, the administration 
which followed his found it impossible to replace the " crazy " 
vessels, of which Nelson said only four were fit for winter 
cruising. "It is not a storeship a week," he declared, "that 
would keep them in repair." The trouble was greater be- 
cause, when leaving Malta, they had anticipated only a cruise 
of three weeks, which for many of them became two years. 

Despite the difficulties, he determined that the fleet as a 
body should not go into port ; nor should the individual ships- 
of-the-line, except when absolutely necessary, and then to 
Gibraltar, not ]\Ialta. " I have made up my mind never to go 
into port till after the battle, if they make me wait a year, 
provided the Admiralty change the ships who cannot keep the 
sea in winter ; " nor did the failure of the Admiralty to meet 
this proviso alter his resolution. It was the carrying out of 
this decision, with ships in such condition, in a region where 
winds and seas were of exceptional violence, and supplies of 
food and Avater most difficult to be obtained, because sur- 
rounded in all directions by countries either directly hostile, 
or under the overmastering influence of Bonaparte, that made 
the exercise of Nelson's command during this period a triumph 
of naval administration and prevision. It does not necessarily 
follow that an officer of distinguished ability for handling a 
force in the face of an enemy, will possess also the faculty 
which foresees and provides for the many contingencies, upon 
Avhich depend the constant efficiency and readiness of a great 
organized body ; though both qualities are doubtless essential 
to constitute a great general officer. For twenty-two months 
Nelson's fleet never went into a port, other than an open road- 
stead on a neutral coast, destitute of supplies ; at the end of 
that time, when the need arose to pursue an enemy for four 
thousand miles, it was found massed, and in all respects per- 



THE QUESTION OF SUPPLIES 573 

fectly prepared for so distant and sudden a call. To quote 
his own words, written a year before this summons in reply to 
an intimation from the Admiralty to be on his guard against 
Spain, " I have the pleasure to acquaint you that the squadron 
under my command is all collected, except the Gibraltar,^ 
complete in their provisions and stores to near five months, 
and in a perfect state of readiness to act as the exigency of 
the moment may determine." '^ With the resources of your 
mind," wrote St. Vincent, when unable to reinforce him, "you 
will do very well ; " and Nelson, when he put off his harness, 
might have boasted himself that the prediction was more than 
fulfilled. 

Provisions, water, and supplies of all sorts were brought to 
the ships on their station, either at sea, or in unfrequented 
roadsteads within the limits of the cruising ground. '' I never 
could have spared the ships to go to Gibraltar for them," he 
wrote to St. Vincent, to whom he expressed his satisfaction 
with the way the plan worked. He soon abandoned, in fact, 
the method of sending individual ships for water, because of 
the long absence thus entailed. When water could not be 
brought in transports, or rather could not easily be transhipped 
owing to the badness of the season, he thought it better to 
take the whole fleet to the nearest watering-place than to 
divide its strength. Fresh provisions, absolutely indispensable 
to the health of the ships' companies, constituted the greatest 
of difficulties. Opposition to furnishing them must be ex- 
pected wherever French influence could be felt. " The great 
distance from Malta or Gibraltar renders the getting such 
refreshments from those places, in a regular manner, abso- 
lutely impossible ; " and from the Spanish ports, Barcelona or 
Eosas, which were near his cruising ground, they could be 
had only "clandestinely." Government Bills would not be 
taken there, nor in Barbary or Sardinia, where bullocks might 
be got. Hard money must be paid, and about this there was 
some routine bureau difficulty. " I certainly hate to have 
anything to do with the management of money," he wrote, 
" but I submit the propriety of lodging public money on board 
the fleet, for the purpose of paying for fresh beef and vege- 
tables, provided, but on no account otherwise, that the simple 
1 Unfit for sea, and kept at Naples for political reasons. 



574 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

receipt from the captain of the ship may be a sufficient 
voucher for the disbursement of such money." Absolutely 
disposed as he was to assume political or military responsi- 
bilities, he was not willing, even for the health of the fleet, to 
incur the risk of pecuniary imputations for himself or his 
captains. 

Great dexterity of management was required to obtain these 
supplies, without drawing, upon those who gave them, such 
tokens of displeasure from Bonaparte as might result in their 
discontinuance. Towards Spain, although he felt for her per- 
plexities, Nelson took a firm tone. She was nominally neutral, 
and enjoyed privileges as such ; he insisted therefore that she 
should deal equal measure to both belligerents. " I am ready 
to make large allowances for the miserable situation Spain has 
placed herself in ; but there is a certain line beyond which I 
cannot submit to be treated with disrespect." That line of 
forbearance was dictated, of course, less by indulgence towards 
Spain than by the necessities of Great Britain, which Nelson, 
however indignant, was too good a diplomatist to drop out of 
sight ; but he kept up a pressure which secured very substan- 
tial assistance, though grudgingly given. " Refreshments we 
have a right to as long as we remain at peace, and if this goes 
on " — the refusal, that is, to allow provisions to be bought in 
quantities — "you may acquaint them that I will anchor in 
Rosas with the squadron, and receive our daily supplies, which 
will offend the French much more than our staying at sea," 

Towards Naples, as secretly friendly to Great Britain, he 
Avas of course far more tender ; and, while he rejected no sug- 
gestion without consideration, he regarded the distance as too 
great to render such a means of subsistence certain. The 
numerous privateers that haunted every port would intercept 
the transports and render convoys necessary ; it was not worth 
while, for so small an advantage, to involve Naples, in its 
already critical state, in a dispute with France. An occasional 
purchase, however, seems to have been made there ; and even 
France herself was at times brought to contribute, indirectly, 
to the support of the squadron which was watching one of her 
principal ports. "Latterly our cattle and onions have been 
procured from France," wrote Nelson ; " but from the apparent 
incivilities of the Spaniards, I suppose we are on the eve of 



IMPORTANCE OF SARDINIA 575 

being shut out." To escape the notice of the French agents, it 
was obviously desirable to distribute as widely as possible the 
sources of supply, so as not to concentrate observation upon 
any one, or upon the general fact. 

It Avas, however, upon Sardinia that Nelson in the end 
chiefly depended. The importance of this island, both in fact 
and in his estimation, was so great, that it may be said to 
have constituted the chief object of his thought and anxiety, 
after his own squadron and the French, which also he at times 
prophetically spoke of as his own. '' I do not mean to use the 
shells you have sent me at sea," he writes to General Villettes, 
" for that I hope to consider burning our own ships ; but in 
case they run ashore, then a few put into their sides will do 
their business." In addition to its extremely favorable cen- 
tral position, Sardinia, as compared to Sicily, did not entail 
the perplexity that its use by the British might cause a 
friendly sovereign the loss of his continental dominions. 
Those of the King of Sardinia had passed already nearly, if 
not wholly, out of his hands. The island itself was so wild, 
poor, and neglected, that, even if seized by the enemy, the 
King would lose little. The net revenue derived from it was 
only £5,000. 

During the previous war Nelson's attention had not been called 
much to Sardinia. Up to the withdrawal from the Mediterra- 
nean in 1796, Corsica had been a sufficient, and more suitable, 
base for the operations of the fleet, which until then had been 
upon the Riviera and the northern coast of Italy. When he 
returned in 1798, even after the Battle of the Nile and the 
disasters of the French in 1799, the unsettled condition of 
Naples, the blockade of Malta, and the affairs of Egypt, had 
combined to keep him in the South ; while the tenure of the 
allies in Northern Italy, up to the Battle of Marengo, was 
apparently so secure as to require no great support from the 
fleet. Irrespective of any personal influences that may have 
swayed him, Sicily was better suited then to be the centre 
from Avhich to superintend the varied duties of his wide 
command. 

When he returned in 1803, the old prepossessions naturally 
remained. In a survey of the political conditions written for 
the Prime Minister when on the passage to Toulon, much is 



576 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

said of Malta, Sicily, ami Naples, but Sardinia is dismissed 
with a passing hope that the French would not seize it. After 
joining the fleet off Toulon, however, he had to realize that, 
if it was to remain at sea, as he purposed and effected, and yet 
be kept fully provisioned and watered, it must at times make 
an anchorage, which should be so far convenient as to keep it, 
practically, as much on its station as when under way. In 
this dilemma his attention was called to the Madalena Islands, 
a group off the northeast end of Sardinia, where wood and 
water could be obtained. Between them and the main island 
there was a good harbor, having the decisive advantage of 
two entrances, by one or other of which it could be left in 
winds from any quarter. A survey had been made a year 
before, during the peace, by a Captain Ryves, now command- 
ing a ship in the fleet. As winter approached, Nelson decided 
to examine the spot himself, which he did in the last days of 
October, taking advantage of a moonlight week when the 
enemy would be less likely to leave port. He found it admi- 
rably adapted for his purposes, and that fresh provisions, 
though not of the best quality, could be had. " It is certainly 
one of the best anchorages I have met with for a fleet," he 
wrote, " but I suppose the French will take it now we have 
used it." This they did not attempt, and the British fleet 
continued to resort to it from time to time, obtaining water 
and bullocks. 

Such a roadstead as an occasional rendezvous, where trans- 
ports could discharge their stores to the vessels, and ships be 
refitted and supplied, would make the fleet as secure of hold- 
ing its position as were the cruisers that depended upon Malta 
and Gibraltar. Its being two hundred miles from Toulon was 
not a serious drawback, for it was no part of Nelson's plan to 
keep the fleet close to Toulon. When he took command, he 
found it so stationed, but he soon removed to a position thirty 
to forty miles west of the harbor's mouth, which seems to 
have been his general summer rendezvous. " Lord Nelson," 
wrote a young officer of the fleet,^ ''pursues a very different 
plan from Sir Bichard Bickerton. The latter kept close to 
the harbour, but Lord Nelson is scarce ever in sight of the 
land, and there is but one frigate inshore." " I chose this 

1 The Honourable Mr. Waldegrave, afterwards Admiral Lord Radstock. 



OF ^" 8^ Madalenaias. 



Asinara Id 



Ids. SanPetro 




-,C- Monte Santo 



Statute Miles 



Nautical Miles 



(For life of ^e /son ) 



IMPORTANCE OF SARDINIA 577 

position," Nelson said, " to answer two important purposes : 
one to prevent the junction of a Spanish fleet from the west- 
ward; and the other, to be to windward, so as to enable me, if 
the northerly gale came on to the N. N. W., to take shelter in 
a few hours under the Hieres Islands, or if N. IST. E., under 
Cape San Sebastian." " It is not my intention to close-watch 
Toulon, even with frigates," he wrote, and his dispositions 
were taken rather with a view to encourage the enemy to 
come out ; although, of course, he took every precaution that 
they should not get far without being observed, and assured 
himself by frequent reconnoitring that they had not left port. 
''My system is the very contrary of blockading," he told 
Admiral Pole. "Every opportunity has been offered the 
enemy to put to sea," he says again, "for it is there we hope 
to realize the hopes and expectations of our Country." There 
was also the obvious advantage that, if habitually out of sight, 
the enemy could not know his movements, nor profit by his 
occasional absences in any direction. 

From Madalena he extended his observations over the 
whole island of Sardinia, upon the holding of which he 
thenceforth laid the greatest stress, and entertained most 
anxious fears lest the French should snatch it out of his 
hands. "If we could possess Sardinia, we should want 
neither Malta nor any other. It is the most important island, 
as a naval and military station, in the Mediterranean. It 
possesses at the northern end the finest harbour in the world 
[Madalena]. It is twenty-four hours' sail from Toulon ; it 
covers Italy ; it is a position that the wind which carries the 
French to the westward is fair for you to follow. In passing 
to the southward they go close to you. In short, it covers 
Egypt, Italy, and Turkey." He was anxious that the British 
Government should buy it. " If we, from delicacy, or com- 
miseration of the unfortunate king of Sardinia, do not get 
possession of that island, the French will. If I lose Sardinia, 
I lose the French fleet." 

His apprehensions were not verified ; as also they were 

not during his command, either in the Morea, in Naples, or 

in Sicily. Napoleon took no active steps against Sardinia, 

although the proceedings there did not escape the sharp eyes 

of the French agents, but elicited from them vivacious remon- 

37 



678 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

strances. ''The government of the Republic," wrote one, 
*' has a right to complain of this excessive complaisance. To 
give regular support to a squadron blockading a port, to re- 
victual it, in one word, periodically, is to tread under foot the 
neutrality which is professed. I shall notify my government 
of a fact which demands all its attention, and in which it is 
painful to me to see a cause of misunderstanding between 
France and his Sardinian Majesty." It is singularly confirm- 
atory of the reality of Bonaparte's intention to attempt the 
invasion of England, that he confined his efforts in the South 
— in the Mediterranean — to feints and demonstrations. 
What he did there looked to the future, not to the present ; 
although, doubtless, he stood always so ready that no oppor- 
tunity offering advantage would have passed neglected. The 
active mind of Nelson, condemned to the uncertainties of the 
defensive and to military idleness, however it may have been 
burdened with administrative routine and official correspond- 
ence, found ample time to speculate on the designs of Bona- 
parte, and the latter took care that he should have matter 
enough to occupy him — and if possible mislead him — in 
rumor and in movements. " At Marseilles they are fatting, 
as reports say, eighty or ninety gunboats, and intend sending 
them, by the canal of Languedoc to Bordeaux ; but I am sure 
this is not true. TJiey are to go alongshore to the Heel of 
Italy, and to embark and protect their army either to Sicily 
or the IVforea, or to both ; and the Navy of Europe can hardly 
prevent these alongshore voyages." In this will be noticed 
the recurrence of ideas familiar to him in the Riviera eight 
years before; the expectation of ex-centric operations into 
which Bonaparte was rarely betrayed. 

Frequent stories also reach him of projects to invade and 
seize Sardinia. Vessels are fitting for that purpose, now at 
Marseilles, now at Villefranche ; now the expedition is to 
come from Corsica only. " A light linen jacket, trowsers, red 
cap, and a pair of shoes, is the whole expense of Government ; 
the plunder of the Sardinian Anglo-Sardes is held out as the 
reward." To prevent it he seeks the authority of his Govern- 
ment and of the King of Sardinia to garrison Madalena. The 
straits of Bonifacio are but ten miles wide ; it is impossible 
therefore for a cruiser to prevent boats passing. If the at- 



MANAGEMENT OF THE FLEET 579 

tempt is made, no scruples about the iieutralit}'' of Sardinia 
shall tie his hands. " I have directed the frigates to piirsue 
them, even should they chase into Sardinia, and to take or 
destroy them, and also the Corsican troops ; for if I wait till 
the island is taken I should feel deserving of reprobation. Of 
course, they will say we have broken the neutrality, if we 
attack them in the ports of Sardinia before their conquest, 
and if we do not I shall be laughed at for a fool. Prevention 
is better than cureJ' With his usual long-headed circum- 
spection, however, even when most bent on an extreme step, 
he warns the Prime Minister, to whom he is writing, to men- 
tion his purpose to the Russian ambassador — that the latter 
may understand the apparent breach of neutrality ; for Russia 
has constituted herself a champion of the Sardinian monarch. 
" I mention my intention that idle reports may not be at- 
tended to." 

As the winter of 1803-4 approached, and it became evident 
that Spain was to persevere in her neutrality. Nelson removed 
his fleet to a rendezvous about thirty miles south of Cape San 
Sebastian, on the Spanish coast — the Number 97 continually 
mentioned in his official letters to captains. There the high- 
lands of Spain afford some shelter from the furious northerly 
gales, which, sweeping over France from the Atlantic, are 
compressed as in a funnel between the Pyrenees and the Alps, 
to fall with redoubled violence on the Gulf of Lyons. Only 
the utmost care and the most skilful seamanship could pre- 
serve the rickety ships, upon whose efficiency so much de- 
pended, and which, if damaged, there was none to replace. 
I "bear up for every gale," wrote Nelson. "I must not in 
our present state quarrel with the northwesters — with crazy 
masts and no port or spars near us." Even in September, he 
writes, there are " three days' gale of severe blowing weather 
out of the seven, which frequently comes on suddenly, and 
thereby exposes the topmasts, topsail yards and sails, to 
great hazard, under every care and attention ; and there are 
no topmasts or topsail yards in store, either at Gibraltar or 
Malta." "The French fleet keep us waiting; and such a 
place as all the Gulf of Lyons, for gales of wind from the 
N. W. to N. E., I never saw ; but by always going away large, 
we generally lose much of their force and the heavy sea. 



580 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

By the great care and attention of every captain, we have 
suffered much less than coukl liave been expected. I do not 
believe Lord St. Vincent would have kept the sea with such 
ships. However, with nursing our ships, we have roughed 
it out better than could have been expected. We either run 
to the southward, or furl all the sails and make the ships as 
easy as possible." Under such circumstances, it was no small 
nor unworthy boast he made near the close of the cruise, when 
the first ineffectual attempt of the French to leave Toulon 
ended, in numerous accidents. " These gentlemen are not 
accustomed to a Gulf of Lyons gale, which we have buffeted 
for twenty-one months, and not carried away a spar." Nelson 
himself, though reckless to desperation when an adequate 
object was at stake, in the moments of repose husbanded his 
means, and looked to the efficiency of his instruments, with 
the diligence of a miser. With his own hand he noted the 
weather indications, including the barometer, at least three 
times every twenty-four hours, and occasionally even more 
often. 

A rendezvous, however advantageous, was not permitted by 
Nelson to become a permanent station, or a long-continued 
resting-place for the fleet. In the inevitable monotony of a 
watch protracted so far beyond his original expectations, his 
sleepless solicitude for the health and contentment of the 
ships' companies warned him that lack of mental interest 
saps the spirit, and wears away the strength, beyond the 
power of mere bodily comfort to prevent. On Number 97 
was kept always a ship — frigate or smaller cruiser — with 
word where the admiral was to be found at any time; and 
thither resorted the vessels returning from their missions to 
all parts of the station, or coming ou^t from England. " Re- 
join me at Number 97," their instructions ran, " where you 
will find me, or orders for your further proceedings." Other 
rendezvous there were, of course, each with its own number, 
and with a cruiser if at sea ; but in the anchorages occasion- 
ally resorted to, as Madalena, or the Gulf of Palmas in the 
south of Sardinia, communications were left on shore. With 
the threads thus reaching from these centres to the different 
parts of his command. Nelson's habit was to keep his fleet in 
motion from jjoint to point, in the stretch of sea bounded on 



SANITARY PRF.CAUTIONS 581 

the one side by the coast of Spain, as far south as. the Balear- 
ics, and on the east by tlie islands of Sardinia and Corsica. 
Through this hunting-ground, from end to end of which he 
roamed in unceasing restlessness, like a lion roaring for his 
prey, the Toulon fleet must pass, wherever bound, and by the 
judicious distribution of the cruisers — all too few — allowed 
him by St. Vincent's economies, he hoped to get timely and 
sufficient information of its leaving port. 

" The great thing in all military service is health," he wrote 
to his old friend. Dr. Moseley, who had been with him in the 
far-back Central American expedition in 1780 ; " and you will 
agree with me, that it is easier for an officer to keep men 
healthy, than for a physician to cure them. Situated as this 
fleet has been, without a friendly port, where we could get all 
the things so necessary for us, yet I have, by changing the 
cruizing ground, not allowed the sameness of prospect to sati- 
ate the mind — sometimes by looking at Toulon, Ville Tranche, 
Barcelona, and Eosas ; then running around Minorca, Majorca, 
Sardinia and Corsica ; and two or three times anchoring for a 
few days, and sending a ship to the last place for ojiions, 
which I find the best thing that can be given to seamen ; 
having always good mutton for the sick, cattle wheil we can 
get them, and plenty of fresh water. In the winter it is the 
best plan to give half the allowance of grog, instead of -all 
Avine. These things are for the commander-in-chief to look 
to ; but shut very nearly out from Spain, and only getting 
refreshments by stealth from other places, my command has 
been an arduous one." "Our men's minds," he added, *'are 
always kept up with the daily hopes of meeting the enemy." 
An order indicating one of the squadron movements, of which 
he here speaks, may be worth quoting. " Whereas it is my 
intention," he writes at ISTumber 97 to the captain there sta- 
tioned, " to proceed with the squadron, the first westerly wind, 
off Toulon, for the purpose of reconnoitring the enemy at that 
port, and from thence pass through Rendezvous No. 102, to 
secure any information the ships there may have obtained of 
them, you are hereby required and directed to keep on your 
station and inform any of his Majesty's ships arriving on said 
rendezvous," etc. 

The health of the crews, thus carefully watched, remained 



582 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

excellent tliroughout, and is mentioned by him continually 
with evident pride as well as satisfaction. Occasional slight 
outbursts of scurvy are noted, despite his eiforts for fresh 
food, and he mentions hectic complaints — "of the few men 
we have lost, nine in ten are dead of consumption" — but 
upon the whole, the general condition is unparalleled in his 
experience. "We are healthy beyond example, and in great 
good humour with ourselves," he writes in October, 1803, 
" and so sharp-set, that I would not be a French Admiral in 
the way of any of our ships for something." It would be 
tedious to quote the numerous assertions to the same effect 
scattered up and down his correspondence at this time ; but 
in December, 1804, when near the end of this long period of 
suspense, and after eighteen months at sea, he writes to the 
Admiralty : " The Fleet is in perfect good health and good 
humour, iinequalled by anything which has ever come within 
my knowledge, and equal to the most active service which the 
times may call for." Dr. Gillespie, who joined the "Victory " 
as physician to the fleet in January, 1805, wrote immediately 
afterwards that out of her eight hundred and forty men, but 
one was confined to his bed by sickness, and that the other 
ships, though upwards of twenty months off Toulon, were in 
a like condition of health. 

The same could not then, nor for long before, be said of 
Nelson himself. The first flush of excitement in leaving Eng- 
land and taking command, the expectation and change of scene 
in going out, affected him favorably. "As to my health," 
he says, immediately after joining the fleet, " thank God, I 
have not had a finger ache since I left England ; " but this, 
unfortunately, did not endure. It was his first experience of 
the weightier anxieties of a commander-in-chief ; for when he 
had succeeded to that position, temporarily, in the Mediter- 
ranean and the Baltic, he had found either a squadron in good 
running order, or at the least no serious hitch about necessary 
maintenance. Now all this was diffierent. The difficulties 
about supplies and the condition of his ships have been men- 
tioned, as have also his fears for Naples, Sicily, and the Morea, 
— all of which, in his belief, might possibly be conquered, 
even without the interposition of the Toulon fleet. The latter, 
however, kept him most uneasy ; for he could get no certain 



HIS ILL HEALTH • 583 

knowledge as to its destination, or the probable time of its mov- 
ing; and the wide field for injury open to it, if his vigilance 
were eluded, kept his eager, unquiet mind continually on the 
strain of speculation and anticipation. " I hope they will come 
out and let us settle the matter. You know I hate being kept 
in suspense." The nervous excitability — irritability — that 
often overlay the usually cordial kindliness and gracious bear- 
ing of the man, was an easy prey to such harassment. It 
breaks out at times in his letters, but was only occasionally 
visible to those around him. By the first of December he 
already foresees that he cannot last long. " Next Christmas, 
please God, I shall be at Merton ; for, by that time, with all 
the anxiety attendant on such a command as this, I shall be 
done up. The mind and body both wear out." 

As autumn drew towards winter, the bitter cold went 
through his feeble frame, and in the wild weather he was 
'' always tossed about, and always sea-sick." " We have had 
a most terrible winter," he writes, even before the Kew Year. 
'• It has almost knocked me np. I have been very ill, and am 
now far from recovered ; but I hope to hold out till the battle 
is over, when I must recruit." " My heart, my Lord, is warm," 
he tells Lord Hobart, the Secretary of State for War, " my 
head is firm, but my body is unequal to my wishes. I am 
visibly shook ; but as long as I can hold out, I shall never 
abandon my truly honourable post." He feared also blind- 
ness. " My eyesight fails me most dreadfully," he writes to 
his old friend Davison. " I firmly believe that, in a very few 
years, I shall be stone-blind. It is this only, of all my mala- 
dies, that makes me unhappy ; but God's will be done." The 
first winter was unusually severe, and during it was added, to 
his official cares and personal suffering, an extreme anxiety 
about Lady Hamilton, for he was expecting the birth of a 
second child in January. This child, a girl, lived b-ut a short 
time ; he never saw her. The effect of these various causes 
upon his health was so great, that the physicians, as early as 
January, 1804, were advising his return. " The medical gen- 
tlemen are wanting to survey me, and to send me to Bristol 
for the re-establishmenb of my health," he tells Miuto ; but 
he adds, "do not mention it (it is my concern) I beg of you." 
Reports were then unusually persistent that the enemy was 



584 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

about to put to sea. " / must not be sick until after the 
French fleet is taken." 

To the last moment the destination of the French and the 
purposes of Bonaparte remained unknown to him, a fruitful 
source of guessing and worry. *' It is at best but a guess," 
he wrote to Ball, after a year's pondering, "and the world 
attaches wisdom to him that guesses right." Yet his conclu- 
sions, however reached, though subject to temporary variations, 
were in the main correct. Strongly impressed tliough he was 
with the importance and exposure of Egypt, he inclined Tipon 
the whole to the belief that the French were bound to the 
Avestward, out of the Straits and into the Atlantic. This con- 
firmed him in taking his general summer rendezvous to the 
westward, where he was to windward of such a movement, as 
well as interposed between Toulon and any Spanish fleet at- 
tempting to go there. " My station to the westward of Toulon, 
an unusual one," he writes to Addington in August, 1803, 
" has been taken upon an idea that the French fleet is bound 
out of the Straits and probably to Ireland. I shall follow 
them to the Antipodes." Two months later he says : " Plau- 
sible reasons may certainly be given for every one of the 
plans " suggested by his various correspondents ; but he 
thinks that either Alexandria or outside the Mediterranean is 
the most probable. " To those two points my whole attention 
is turned." " Their destination, is it Ireland or the Levant ? 
That is what I want to know ; " but in December he still holds 
to his first impression : " My opinion is, certainly, out of the 
Mediterranean." 

In this perplexity Elliot suggested to him to receive on 
board the fleet some good Frenchmen, who could land from 
time to time and get information in Toulon, — a proposition 
which drew from Nelson a characteristic and amusing explo- 
sion. " Mr. Elliot wanted to send me some good Frenchmen, 
to go ashore and get me information. My answer to all these 
offers is 'No.' I can be told nothing of any consequence to 
me; but a copy of the French admiral's orders, when he is to 
put to sea, and where he is destined to, is the only useful in- 
formation I can care about. I can see the number and force 
at Toulon any day I please, and as for the names of the 
Captains or Admirals I care not what they are called; there- 



ANXIETY ABOUT FRENCH PLANS 585 

fore, as you may suppose, I have none of these 'good French- 
men ' about me." " I put no confidence in them," he tells 
Elliot. " You think yours good : the Queen thinks hers the 
same: I believe they are all alike. Whatever information 
you can get me, I shall be very thankful for ; but not a 
Frenchman comes here. Forgive me, but my mother hated 
the French." " I never trust a Corsican or a Frenchman. I 
would give the devil all the good ones to take the remainder." 

As winter advanced, his perplexities increased, for each 
correspondent, by long dwelling on his particular concern, 
saw its danger and importance growing in his own eyes, and 
dwelt upon them with greater emphasis in his letters. " Ball 
is sure they are going to Egypt ; the Turks are sure they are 
going to the Morea; Mr. Elliot at Naples, to Sicily; and the 
King of Sardinia, to his only spot. Every power thinks they 
are destined against them ; but whatever the French may in- 
tend to do," he concludes, Avith a quaint humor occasional 
with him, " I trust, and with confidence, they are destined for 
Spithead.'" He recognized, too, that Bonaparte himself was 
not wholly master of his own projects when contending with 
such uncertain elements ; and the great master of War, in this 
instance as in many others, had placed his force so centrally, 
in the heel of Italy, that he threatened with equal facility in 
two opposite directions, to his own advantage and his enemies' 
perplexity. " Circumstances may even make it necessary to 
alter its destination by Buonaparte ; Egypt or Ireland, and I 
rather lean to the latter destination," Anything, indeed, is 
possible ; for, as winter approaches, " we can be sure of nothing 
in so short a run," — as to Sardinia or Sicily. 

For a little while during February, 1804, he was further 
stirred up by reports that the French were about to concen- 
trate their naval forces, from Brest and Ferrol, in the Medi- 
terranean ; and this he was inclined to believe, unfavorable 
as the season would be for maritime operations in that stormy 
sea, with the inexperienced crews of the enemy. In the sum- 
mer his conviction of the importance of the Mediterranean 
had fully prepared him for such an attempt. " Naples, the 
Morea, and ultimately Egypt, are in Buonaparte's view," he 
had then written. '' With this idea, I fully expect that the 
French fleet from Brest will assuredly come into the Medi- 



586 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

terranean, to protect this army across the water. I shall try 
and fight one party or the other, before they form a jixnction." 
" Much may be done before British reinforcements arrive," he 
reminded St. Vincent. " Your Lordship knows what Admiral 
Bruix might have done, had he done his duty, and they may 
buy their experience." Now he says to Ball, " The Admiralty 
tells me nothing, they know nothing ; but my private letters 
say, that the Brest squadron, as well as Ferrol,i is bound 
here — if so, we shall have work enough upon our hands." 
Thirty thousand troops, also, were ready to embark in IMar- 
seilles and Nice. The conclusion, in view of so great a force 
assembling, was natural: "Egypt, I have no doubt, is the 
favourite and ultimate object of the Corsican tyrant." Nelson's 
spirit rises with the occasion. " I shall try to intercept them, 
but I cannot go so far to the westward as is necessary ; for I 
will not lose sight of the Toulon fleet. What a most zealous 
man can do to meet all points of difficulty, shall be done. My 
squadron is the finest for its numbers in the world, and much 
may be expected of it. Should superior numbers join, we 
must look it in the face. Nil desi^erandum ! God is good, 
and our cause is just." 

This alarm passed away like others. Bonaparte had no idea 
of pushing ships into the Mediterranean, or embarking his 
naval forces on any doubtful experiments, until he had first 
tested the possibility of that supreme adventure, the invasion 
of England. When that mighty imagination passed away like 
a dream that leaves no trace, he ordered his fleets into the 
Mediterranean, as Nelson had expected, and the result was 
Trafalgar. 

As the spring of 1804 opened, the French admiral at Toulon 
began to exercise his ships outside the harbor, singly or in 
small groups, like half-fledged birds learning to fly ; or, to use 
Nelson's expression, " My friend Monsieur La Touche some- 
times plays bo-peep in and out of Toulon, like a mouse at the 
edge of her hole." The only drill-ground for fleets, the open 
sea, being closed to him, he could do no better than these fur- 
tive excursions, to prepare for the eagle's flight Napoleon had 
prescribed to him. " Last week, at different times, two sail 

1 Five French sliips-of-tlie-line, returning from the West Indies, Lad taken 
refuge in Ferrol. 



FRENCH OUTINGS OFF TOULON 587 

of the line put their heads out of Toulon, and on Thursday, 
the 5th [April], in the afternoon, they all came out." "Yes- 
terday [the 9th] a rear-admiral and seven sail, including 
frigates, put their nose outside the harbour. If they go on 
playing this game, some day we shall lay salt upon their tails, 
and so end tlie campaign." 

These outings — " capers," Nelson called them — naturally 
became more venturesome by little and little, as the British 
suffered them to proceed without serious attempt at molesta- 
tion, or near approach on their part. Nelson veiled the keen- 
ness of his watch, as he crouched for a spring, with a drowsy 
appearance of caution and indifference. The French admiral, 
Latouche Treville, was he who had commanded at Boulogne 
when Nelson's boats were repelled with slaughter ; and it was 
also he who in 1792 had sent a grenadier to the King of 
Naples, with a peremptory summons to diplomatic apology in 
one hand, and a threat of bombardment in the other. For 
both these affairs Nelson considered he had a personal score 
to settle. "I rather believe my antagonist at Toulon begins 
to be angry with me : at least, I am trying to make him so ; 
and then, he may come out, and beat me, as he says he did off* 
Boulogne. He is the Admiral that went to Naples in Decem- 
ber, 1792, who landed the grenadier. I owe him something 
for that." 

The French having eight sail-of-the-line certainly ready for 
sea, and two or three more nearly so — how nearly Nelson 
was not sure — he now endeavored to lure them out. "I have 
taken a method of making Mr. La Touche Treville angry. I 
have left Sir Kichard Bickerton, with part of the fleet, twenty 
leagues from hence, and, with five of the line, am preventing 
his cutting capers, which he has done for some time past, 
off Cape Sicie." "He seems inclined to try his hand with 
us," he writes a week later, "and by my keeping so great 
an inferiority close to him, perhaps he may some day be 
tempted." Nelson had near Toulon at the time nine ships-of- 
the-line. Had he succeeded in bringing Latouche Treville to 
attack his five, he would have hoped, even with such odds, 
for a decisive victory ; but, failing that, he was assured that 
the Toulon fleet would be out of the game for that summer. 
It was important to bring matters to an issue, for, as he wrote 



588 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Elliot, his force was diminishing daily through the deteriora- 
tion of ships never from the first fit for their work. Measured 
by the standard of the ships in the Channel, " I have but four 
sail fit to keep the sea. I absolutely keep them out by man- 
agement." Except the four, all needed docking, and there 
was not a dock open to the British west of Constantinople. 

But, while thus keenly anxious to force an action, he was 
wary to obtain tactical conditions that should insure a success, 
adequate both to the risk he ran, and to the object at which 
he aimed. " I think their fleet will be ordered out to fight 
close to Toulon, that 'they may get their crippled ships in 
again, and that we must then quit the coast to repair our dam- 
ages, and thus leave the coast clear ; but my mind is fixed not 
to fight them, unless with a westerly wind, outside the Hieres, 
and with an easterly wind, to the westward of Sicie." Crip- 
pled there, to leeward of their port, the other British division 
coming up fresh, as a reserve, from the southward, where it 
lay concealed, would both cut them oif, and rescue any of 
their own fleet that might have been overpowered. Bicker- 
ton's orders were to remain due south from Port Cros, one of 
'the Hyeres, at a distance such that, with the upper canvas 
furled, his ships could not be seen from the islands, but could 
keep the main division in sight from their mastheads. In all 
cases of anticipated battle. Nelson not only took his measures 
thus thoughtfully, but was careful to put his subordinates in 
possession both of his general plans, and, as far as possible, of 
the underlying ideas. Thus, in a memorandum issued about 
this time to the captains, he says: "As it is my determination 
to attack the French fleet in any place where there is a reason- 
able prospect of getting fairly alongside of them, I recommend 
that every captain will make himself, by inquiries, as fully 
acquainted as possible with the following places, viz., Hieres 
Bay [with its three entrances], Gourjean Bay, (of which I 
send a chart from the latest surveys made,) Port Especia, and, 
in particular the northern Passage into Leghorn Roads, from 
which side it is only, in my opinion, possible to attack an 
enemy's fleet to advantage ; and Avith the Gulf of Ajaccio." 
To these instructions he adds some details of practical prepa- 
ration for anchoring under fire, and the reasons therefor. In 
the same spirit, when expecting the Brest fleet in the Mediter- 



TACTICAL TRECAUTIONS 589 



ranean, he says : '' I am perfectly prepared how to act with 
either a superior or an inferior force. My mind is firm as a 
rock, and my plans for every event fixed in my mind." No 
man ever was served better than Nelson by the inspiration of 
the moment ; no man ever connted on it less. 

In communicating his ideas to his subordinates Nelson did 
not confine himself to official intercourse ; on the contrary, his 
natural disposition impelled him rather to familar conversation 
with them on service subjects. " Even for debating the most 
important naval business," we learn through his confidential 
secretary at this period, " he preferred a turn on the quarter- 
deck with his captains, whom he led by his own frankness to 
express themselves freely, to all the stiffness and formality of a 
council of war." ^ An interesting instance of these occasional 
counsels has been transmitted to us by one of his captains, then 
little more than a youth, but the last to survive of those who 
commanded ships under him. " Throughout the month of 
October, 1804, Toulon was frequently reconnoitred, and the 
Phoebe and Amazon were ordered to cruize together. Previous 
to their going away Lord Nelson gave to Captains Capel and 
Parker several injunctions, in case they should get an oppor- 
tunity of attacking two of the French frigates, which now got 
under weigh more frequently. The principal one was, that 
they should not each single out and attack an opponent, but 
* that both should endeavour together to take one frigate ; if 
successful, chase the other ; but if you do not take the second, 
still you have won a victory, and your country will gain a 
frigate.' Then, half laughing, and half snappishly, said 
kindly to them as he wished them good-bye, 'I daresay you 
consider yourselves a couple of fine fellows, and when you get 
away from me you will do nothing of the sort, but think your- 
selves wiser than I am !' " 2 

The game of cat and mouse, off Toulon, occasioned one inci- 
dent which greatly upset Nelson's composure, and led to a 
somewhat amusing display of ire, excited by a statement of 

1 Life of Rev. A. J. Scott, p. 124. 

2 Plulliinore's Last of Nelson's Captains, p. 122. A portion of this inci- 
dent has before been quoted, in another connection (page 303, note). It 
is repeated, because again applicable, to illustrate a different trait of Nelson's 
character. 



590 THE LITE OF NELSON 

the French admiral, published throughout Europe, that his 
renowned antagonist had run away from him. On the 13th 
of June, two French frigates and a brig were seen under the 
Hyeres Islands, where they had been seen by Latouche 
Treville, upon the report that some enemy's cruisers were in 
the neighborhood. Nelson despatched two frigates after them, 
which, owing to light winds, did not get near until the next 
day. The French vessels being then seen from the "Victory " 
to be close in with the batteries, the ''Excellent," 74, was 
sent to support the frigates, and some time afterwards the 
other four ships also bore up for the main entrance to the 
islands. Upon this, Latouche Treville got under way, and at 
about 5 p. M. came out of the harbor with his eight sail-of-the- 
line. Nelson's division reduced their canvas, hauling to the 
wind in line of battle, on the starboard tack, which, with the 
then wind, was with their heads off shore, and the '*' Excel- 
lent" was recalled, although she could not rejoin till mid- 
night. In this order they hove-to (stopped), with two reefs 
in the topsails and the main yards square, at 7.30 p. m., which 
at that time of the year was broad daylight, and in this 
general position remained till next morning. 

As the distance between the hostile bodies was apparently 
from tw^elve to fifteen miles, the French admiral's observa- 
tions may have failed to recognize that the enemy, by backing 
his topsails, had offered a fair challenge ; else, in his report of 
this very commonplace occurrence, he could scarcely have used, 
concerning the movement of heading south, the expression, 
2)rit chasse, which, whether rendered " retired," or "retreated," 
or, as Nelson did, " ran away," was a misrepresentation of the 
facts, and heightened by the assertion that he pursued till 
night-fall, and next morning could not see the enemy. Writ- 
ing to Elliot four days after the affair happened, Nelson men- 
tioned casually his view of the matter. " Monsieur La Touche 
came out with eight sail of the line and six frigates, cut a 
caper off Sepet, and went in again. I brought-to for his 
attack, although I did not believe anything was meant serious, 
but merely a gasconade," " On the morning of the loth," he 
tells Acton on the same day, "I believe I may call it, we 
chased him into Toulon." His purpose evidently was, as has 
been shown, to fight, if the enemy meant business, to leeward 



THE REPORT OF LATOUCHE TREVILLE 591 

of the port, and far enough off to give Bickerton a chance to 
come up. Great was his wrath, two months later, when La- 
touche's statement reached him, and he found that not only no 
mention was made of the relative numbers, but that the offen- 
sive expression quoted had been used. " I do assure you," he 
wrote to the Admiralty, enclosing a copy of the day's log, '•' I 
know not what to say, except by a flat contradiction ; for if 
my character is not established by this time for not being apt 
to run away, it is not worth my time to attempt to put the 
world right." He might well have rested there, — an impu- 
tation that might have injured an untried man could provoke 
only a smile when levelled at his impregnable renown ; but 
his ruffled mind would not let him keep quiet, and in private 
correspondence he vented his rage in terms similar to those 
used of the Danish commodore after Copenhagen. " You will 
have seen Monsieur La Touche's letter of how he chased me 
and how I rrm. I keep it ; and, by G — d, if I take him, he 
shall eat it." He is a " jxiltroon," a " liar," and a " miscreant." 
It may be added that no admiral, whether a Nelson or not, 
could have abandoned the "Excellent " under the conditions. 

Immediately after this abortive affair, Nelson, convinced by 
it that something more than a taunt was needed to bring his 
enemy under his guns, stationed frigates at the Hyeres, and to 
cruise thence to the eastward as far as Cape Taillat, to inter- 
cept the commerce between Italy and Toulon and Marseilles. 
For this purpose lie had recommended, and the Government 
had ordered, a blockade of all Genoese ports including Spezia ; 
Genoa, now the Ligurian Republic, being considered as much 
France as Toulon. Nothing, he said, could distress France 
more. This blockade had been but feebly enforced, owing to 
the lack of small cruisers; but he hoped to attain the same 
end by the frigates off the Hyeres. " I really am of opinion," 
he told their commander, " that it will force La Touche out." 
In the latter, however, he had to do with an opponent of skill 
as well as of resolution. Firmly imbued with the French 
tradition, and with Bonaparte's instructions, which subordi- 
nated his local action entirely to the great scheme in which the 
Toulon fleet had its appointed part, Latouche Treville was 
neither to be provoked nor betrayed into an action, by which, 
however tempting the promise, his fleet might be made unfit 



592 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

for their intended service. Nelson did him no more than jus- 
tice, when he said, " I am confident, when he is ordered for 
any service, that he will risk falling in with us, and the event 
of a battle, to try and accomplish his orders ; " but, short of 
the appointed time, nothing else could entice him. In vain 
did the British admiral bait his trap by exposing frigates, 
without visible support, to draw him to leeward, while the 
hostile fleet hovered out of sight to Avindward. The shrewd 
Frenchman doubtless felt the temj)tation, but he distrusted 
the gifts too plausibly tendered. 

Besides the interest of the public service, Nelson had the 
strongest personal motives for bringing matters to an issue. 
The prolonged suspense and the anxiety were exhausting him, 
the steady tension even of the normal conditions fretted him 
beyond endurance ; but when a crisis became accentuated by 
an appearance that the enemy had eluded him, his feelings of 
distress, acting upon an enfeebled organization, and a nervous 
temperament so sensitive that he started at the mere dropping 
of a rope beside him, drove him almost to distraction. On 
such an occasion he wrote : " I am absolutel}' beginning this 
letter in a fever of the mind. It is thick as butter-milk, and 
blowing a Levanter ; and the Narcissus has just spoke me to 
say, ' she boarded a vessel, and they understood that the men 
had seen, a few days before, twelve sail of ships of war off 
Minorca. It was in the dusk, and he did not know which way 
they were steering.' This is the whole story, and a lame 
one. You will imagine my feelings, although I cannot bring 
my mind to believe. To miss them, God forbid. ... If I 
should miss these fellows, my heart will break : I am actually 
only now recovering the shock of missing them in 1798. God 
knows I only serve to fight those scoundrels ; and if I cannot 
do that, I should be better on shore." When the weather 
cleared, and a reconuoissance showed the news was false, his 
intense relief found expression in the words : " I believe this 
is the only time in my life, that I was glad to hear the French 
were in port." " The French ships," he says at another time, 
" have either altered their anchorage, or some of them have 
got to sea in the late gales : the idea has given me half a 
fever. If that admiral were to cheat me out of my hopes of 
meeting him, it would kill me much easier than one of his 



HIS PERSONAL HEALTH, 1804 593 

balls. Since we sat down to dinner Captain Moubray has 
made the signal, but I am very far from being easy." 

On the 12th of May, 1804, there was a change of adminis- 
tration in England. Earl St. Vincent left the Admiralty, as 
First Lord, and was succeeded by Lord Melville. A few days 
before this Nelson, by a general promotion, had become Vice- 
Admiral of the White, the rank in which he died eighteen 
months later. 

The return of summer had improved his health from the 
low condition into which it had fallen during the winter, but 
he did not flatter himself as to the future. The combination 
of colorless monotony with constant racking anxiety slackened 
the springs of moral energy, which, and which alone, respond- 
ing joyously to a call to action, afforded the stimulus capable 
of triumphing over his bodily weakness, and causing it for the 
moment to disappear. " This is an odd war," he said, " not a 
battle ! " Tying himself to the ship, in profound sympathy 
with the crews, he never went ashore from the time he left 
Malta in June, 1803, until he reached Gibraltar in July, 
1805; nor was he ever outside of the "Victory" from July 
30, 1803, the day he went on board her from the " Amphion." 
" Always shut up in the Victory's cabin," as he himself wrote, 
" cannot be very good for the constitution. I think you will 
find me grown thin, but never mind." Other oflicers, 
especially of the frigates, got their occasional runs ashore ; 
but his slight figure was continually in view, walking the 
front of the poop, to the unconscious contentment of the men, 
thus reminded ever that their admiral shared their depriva- 
tions. This profound seclusion to the narrow circle of the 
flagship, although often broken by the presence of oflicers 
from the other vessels, who, whether cruising in company 
with the fleet, or arriving with tidings from different ports, 
were daily partakers of the admiral's hospitable table, could not 
but depress him ; and there was with him the constant sense 
of loss, by absence from those he held most dear. " I have 
not a thought except on you and the French fleet," he tells 
Lady Hamilton ; " all my thoughts, plans, and toils tend to 
those two objects. Don't laugh at my putting you and the 
French fleet together, but you cannot be separated." 

Yet even towards her his mind is fixed as of old, that she 

38 



594 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

must take a place second to duty. She had, it appears, in- 
sisted upon her wish to come out to the station to be near him. 
Malta and Italy Avere both, he said, out of the question. His 
place was off Toulon, as long as the French fleet was there ; 
therefore he could not go into harbor ; nay, '• I might ab- 
solutely miss you, by leaving the Mediterranean without 
warning. The other day we had a report the French were 
out, and seen steering to the westward. We were as far 
as Minorca when the alarm proved false." As for coming on 
board the '* Victory "to live, which she seems to have sug- 
gested, " Imagine what a cruize off Toulon is ; even in summer 
time we have a hard gale every Aveek, and two days' heavy 
swell. It would kill you ; and myself to see you. Much less 
possible to have Charlotte, Horatia, &c., on board ship ! And 
I, that have given orders to carry no women to sea in the 
Victory, to be the first to break them ! I know, my own dear 
Emma, if she will let her reason have fair play, will say. I am 
right ; but she is like Horatia, very angry if she cannot have 
her own way." "Horatia is like her mother; will have her 
own way, or kick up a devil of a dust," — an observation both 
Greville and Hamilton had had to make. " Your Nelson," he 
concludes, " is called upon, in the most honourable manner, to 
defend his country. Absence to us is equally painful : but, if 
I had either stayed at home, or neglected my duty abroad, 
would not my Emma have blushed for me ? She could never 
have heard my praises, and how the country looks up." "The 
call of our country," he says again, " makes it indispensable 
for both our honours — the country looks up to the services 
of the poorest individual, much more to me, and are you not a 
sharer of my glory ? " 

Of his daily life on board, and intercourse with others, we 
have intimations, fragmentary yet sufficient. " Our days," he 
himself says, " pass so much alike that, having described one, 
you have them all. We now [October] breakfast by candle 
light ; and all retire, at eight o'clock, to bed." " We cruise, 
cruise, and one day so like another that they are hardly 
distinguishable, but hopes, blessed hopes, keeps us up, that 
some happy day the French may come out, then I shall 
consider my duty to my country fulfilled." Of one of these 
monotonous days we have received a description from an 



I 



DAILY LIFE ON BOARD 595 

officer/ a member of the admiral's mess, who had then too 
lately entered upon them to feel the full weight of their 
deadly sameness. 

"At 6 o'clock my servant brings a light and informs me 
of the hour, wind, weather, and course of the ship, when I 
immediately dress and generally repair to the deck, the dawn 
of day at this season and latitude being apparent at about 
half or three-quarters of an hour past six. Breakfast is an- 
nounced in the Admiral's cabin, where Lord Nelson, Eear 
Admiral Murray, (the Captain of the Fleet,) Captain Hardy, 
commander of the Victory, the chaplain, secretary, one or 
two officers of the ship, and your humble servant assemble 
and breakfast on tea, hot rolls, toast, cold tongue, &c., which 
when finished we repair upon deck to enjoy the majestic 
sight of the rising sun (scarcely ever obscured by clouds in 
this fine climate) surmounting the smooth and placid waves 
of the Mediterranean, which supports the lofty and tremen- 
dous bulwarks of Britain, following in regular train their 
admiral in the Victory. Between the hours of 7 and 2 there 
is plenty of time for business, study, writing, and exercise, 
which different occupations I endeavour to vary in such a 
manner as to afford me sufficient employment. At 2 o'clock 
a band of music plays till within a quarter of 3, when the 
drum beats the tune called, ' The Eoast Beef of Old England ' 
to announce the Admiral's dinner, which is served up exactly 
at 3 o'clock, and which generally consists of three courses and 
a dessert of the choicest fruit [a fact which bespeaks the 
frequency of communications with the land], together with 
three or four of the best wines, champagne and claret not 
excepted. If a person does not feel himself perfectly at his 
ease it must be his own fault, such is the urbanity and hospi- 
tality which reign here, notwithstanding the numerous titles, 
the four orders of Knighthood, worn by Lord Nelson,^ and 
the well earned laurels which he has acquired. Coffee and 
liqueurs close the dinner about half-past 4 or 5 o'clock, after 
which the company generally walk the deck, where the band 

1 The letter of this gentleman, Dr. Gillespie, from which a quotation has 
already been made, was published in the London " Times " of October 6, 1886. 

2 This incidental remark may be noted, as bearing upon the statement, 
now rejected, that his orders were put on especially for battle. 



596 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of music plays for nearly an hour.^ A 6 o'clock tea is an- 
nounced, when the company again assemble in the Admiral's 
cabin, where tea is served up before 7 o'clock, and, as we are 
inclined, the party continue to converse with his lordship, 
who at this time generally unbends himself, though he is at 
all times as free from stiffness and pomp as a regard to proper 
dignity will admit, and is very communicative. At 8 o'clock a 
rummer of punch with cake or biscuit is served up, soon after 
which we wish the Admiral a good night (who is generally in 
bed before 9 o'clock). Such is the journal of a day at sea in fine 
or at least moderate weather, in which this floatiug castle goes 
through the water with the greatest imaginable steadiness." 

Another medical officer, who served on board the " Victory " 
soon after the writer of the lines just quoted, has transmitted 
some other interesting particulars of Nelson's personal habits 
and health, which relate to the general period now under 
narration. 

"An opinion has been very generally entertained, that 
Lord Nelson's state of health, and supposed infirmities aris- 
ing from his former wounds and hard services, precluded the 
probability of his long surviving the battle of Trafalgar, had 
he fortunately escaped the Enemy's shot: but the writer of 
this can assert that his Lordship's health was uniformly good, 
with the exception of some slight attacks of indisposition 
arising from accidental causes; and which never continued 
above two or three days, nor confined him in any degree with 
respect to either exercise or regimen: and during the last 
twelve months of his life, he complained only three times in 
this way. It is true, that his Lordship, about the meridian 
of life, had been subject to frequent fits of the gout ; which 
disease, however, as well as his constitutional tendency to it, 
he totally overcame by abstaining for the space of nearly two 
years from animal food, and wine, and all other fermented 
drink ; confining his diet to vegetables, and commonly milk 
and water. And it is also a fact, that early in life, when he 
first went to sea, he left off the use of salt, which he then 
believed to be the sole cause of scurvy, and never took it 
afterwards with his food. 

1 There is here no mention of smoking ; nor has any allusion to it, or to 
tobacco, caught the author's eye in Nelson's letters. 



HIS PERSONAL HEALTH 597 

"His Lordship used a great deal of exercise, generally 
walking on deck six or seven hours in the day. He always 
rose early, for the most part shortly after daybreak. He 
breakfasted in summer about six, and at seven in winter : and 
if not occupied in reading or writing despatches, or examining 
into the details of the Fleet, he walked on the quarter-deck 
the greater part of the forenoon ; going down to his cabin 
occasionally to commit to paper such incidents or reflections 
as occurred to him during that time, and as might be here- 
after useful to the service of his country. He dined generally 
about half-past two o'clock. At his table there were seldom 
less than eight or nine persons, consisting of the different 
Officers of the Ship ; and when the weather and the service 
permitted, he very often had several of the Admirals and 
Captains in the Fleet to dine with him ; who were mostly 
invited by signal, the rotation of seniority being commonly 
observed by his Lordship in these invitations. At dinner he 
was alike affable and attentive to every one : he ate very 
sparingly himself ; the liver and wing of a fowl, and a small 
plate of macaroni, in general composing his meal, during 
which he occasionally took a glass of champagne. He never 
exceeded four glasses of wine after dinner, and seldom drank 
three ; and even those were diluted with either Bristol or 
common water. 

"Few men subject to the vicissitudes of a Naval life, 
equalled his Lordship in an habitual systematic mode of 
living. He possessed such a wonderful activity of mind, as 
even prevented him from taking ordinary repose, seldom en- 
joying two hours of uninterrupted sleep; and on several oc- 
casions he did not quit the deck during the whole night. At 
these times he took no pains to protect himself from the 
effects of wet, or the night air; wearing only a thin great 
coat : and he has frequently, after having his clothes wet 
through with rain, refused to have them changed, saying that 
the leather waistcoat Avhich he wore over his flannel one 
would secure him from complaint. He seldom wore boots, 
and was consequently very liable to have his feet wet. When 
this occurred he has often been known to go down to his 
cabin, tlirow off his shoes, and walk on the carpet in his stock- 
ings for the purpose of drying the feet of them. He chose 



698 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

rather to adopt this uncomfortable expedient, than to give 
his servants the trouble of assisting him to put on fresh stock- 
ings ; which, from his having only one hand, he could not 
himself conveniently effect. 

" From these circumstances it may be inferred, that though 
Lord Nelson's constitution was not of that kind which is gen- 
erally denominated strong, yet it was not very susceptible of 
complaint from the common occasional causes of disease neces- 
. sarily attending a Naval life. The only bodily pain which his 
Lordship felt in consequence of his many wounds, was a slight 
rheumatic affection of the stump of his amputated arm on any 
sudden variation in the state of the weather ; which is gener- 
ally experienced by those who have the misfortune to lose a 
limb after the middle age. His Lordship usually predicted 
an alteration in the weather with as much certainty from feel- 
ing transient pains in his stump, as he could by his marine 
barometer; from the indications of which latter he kept a 
diary of the atmospheric changes, which was written with his 
own hand. 

"His Lordship had lost his right eye by a contusion which 
he received at the siege of Calvi, in the island of Corsica. 
The vision of the other was likewise considerably impaired: 
he always therefore wore a green shade over his forehead, to 
defend this eye from the effect of strong light ; but as he was 
in the habit of looking much through a glass while on deck, 
there is little doubt that had he lived a few years longer, and 
continued at sea, he would have lost his sight totally." ^ 

The business hours of the day from seven to two were spent 
by Nelson largely with his secretaries. We know from Colonel 
Stewart that in the Baltic, where his command was more 
numerous than in the Mediterranean, his habit was to get 
through the ordinary business of the squadron before eight 
o'clock ; for the rest, the greater part of the detail work would 
fall upon the Captain of the Fleet, then Rear-Admiral George 
Murray, who wo\ild require only general instructions and little 
interference for carrying on the laborious internal administra- 
tion of the fleet. The Admiral's energies were sufficiently 
taxed in considering and meeting, so far as his resources 

^ Dr. Beatty's Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson. Nicolas, vol. vii. 
p. 259. 



ADMINISTRATIVE CARES 599 

would permit, the numerous and complicated demands for 
external services in the different quarters of his wide com- 
mand — the ingenious effort to induce two and two to make 
five, in which so much of the puzzle of life consists. His 
position necessarily involved extensive diplomatic relations. 
Each British IMinister around the shores of the Mediterranean 
had his own particular care ; the British admiral was in con- 
fidential communication with all, and in every movement had 
to consider the consequences, both of what he did and of what 
lie left undone. It was a day when force ruled, and all the 
nations of Europe, whether they wished or not, had to put 
their chief trust in the sword, and in those who bore it. Not 
the least of Nelson's qualifications for his post was that he 
possessed intimate knowledge and experience of jiolitical con- 
ditions in the Mediterranean, knew the peoples and the rulers 
well, and to great sagacity and sound judgment added a tem- 
per at once firm and conciliatory. " He had in a great 
degree," said a contemporary who knew him well,^ "the valu- 
able but rare quality of conciliating the most opposite temjiers, 
and forwarding the public service with unanimity amongst 
men not of themselves disposed to accord ; " and although the 
remark referred primarily to his conduct in the naval service, 
it will readily be seen that this aptitude is nowhere more use- 
ful than in the tangled maze of conflicting national interests. 
'' My line of conduct," he wrote to Hobart, a year after taking 
his command, "in obedience to the spirit of his Majesty's 
instructions communicated through your Lordship, has been 
simply this, — to conciliate all, to protect all from French 
rapacity. I have been honoured with your letter of January 
7th, and it has given me most sincere pleasure that my whole 
conduct in my command here has been such as to meet his 
Majesty's approbation." The new Ministry, upon assuming 
office, requested him in the most flattering terms to continue 
his direct correspondence on political subjects with them, as 
with their predecessors. 

Yet, while conciliatory, he could at times be curt and arbi- 
trary enough. Eault was found with the blockade of Genoa on 
the ground that it did not comply witli the requirements of 
international law; the complaint resting, apparently, on the 
^ Sir William Hotliam. 



600 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

statement that the blockaders could not be seen from Genoa. 
Nelson replied that the proof of evident danger to vessels 
seeking to enter or leave, rested oii the fact that captures were 
made ; and it is, on the face of it, absurd to say that there can 
be no danger to a vessel seeking to enter a blockaded port, 
because the blockading vessels are not visible from the latter. 
Much more depends npon their number, disposition, and speed. 
"From my knowledge of Genoa and its Gulf," said Nelson, 
" I assert without fear of contradiction, that the nearer ships 
cruise to Genoa, the more certain is the escape of vessels from 
that port, or their entrance into it insured. I am blockading 
Genoa, according to the orders of the Admiralty, and in the 
way I think most proper. Whether modern law or ancient 
law makes my mode right, I cannot judge ; and surely of the 
mode of disposing of a fleet, I must, if I am fit for my post, 
be a better judge than any landsman, however learned he may 
appear. It would be the act of a fool to tell Europe where I 
intend to place the ships, for the purpose of effectually obey- 
ing my orders ; not a captain can know it, and their positions 
will vary, according to the information I may receive. ... I 
endeavour, as well as I am able, to obey my orders, without 
entering into the nice distinctions of lawyers. I will not 
further take up your time on a subject which, without being a 
lawyer, merely as a man, could have admitted of no dispute." 
Along with much truth, there was in this a certain amount of 
special pleading, as appeared when he took the further jDOsi- 
tion that, to intercept ships from Genoa, bound to the Atlantic, 
there was no better place than the Gut of Gibraltar. When a 
definition of international law is stretched as far as that, it 
will have little elastic force left. 

A petty, yet harassing, diplomatic difficulty, curiously illus- 
trative of maritime conditions at that day, ran unsettled 
through almost the whole of his command. Malta, under the 
Knights, had been always at war with the Barbary Powers ; 
and there was trouble in impressing upon the rulers of the 
latter that, when it passed into British hands, its people and 
ships were under British protection. Several Maltese vessels 
had been taken by Algerine cruisers, and their crews enslaved. 
When Nelson came out in 1803, he found pending these cases, 
and also the question of compelling, or inducing, the Dey to 



1 



DIFFICULTIES WITH ALGIERS 601 

receive back the British consul, whom he had expelled with 
insult. In the absence of a British representative, the nego- 
tiations were intrusted wholly to the admiral. 

Nelson's feelings were strongly excited. He was tenacious 
of everything he conceived to touch his country's honor, and 
long service in the Mediterranean had made him familiar 
with the outrages on its defenceless coasts practised by these 
barbarians, under the pretence of war with the weaker states. 
Even in the remote and impoverished north of Sardinia, 
the shepherds near the beaches watched their flocks with 
arms beside them, day and night, to repel the attacks of 
marauders from the sea. Not only were trading-vessels 
seized, but descents were made upon the shore, and the in- 
habitants swept off into slavery. Speaking of one such case 
in 1799, he had said : "My blood boils that I cannot chastise 
these pirates. They could not show themselves in the 
Mediterranean did not our Country permit. Never let us 
talk of the cruelty of the African slave trade, Avhile we per- 
mit such a horrid war." But he knew, both then and after- 
wards, that Great Britain, with the great contest on her 
hands, could not spare the ships which might be crippled in 
knocking the barbarians' strongholds about their ears, and that 
no British admiral would be sustained in a course that pro- 
voked these pirates to cast aside the fears that restrained 
them, and to declare war on British commerce, which, as it 
was, he had difficulty to protect. He estimated ten ships-of- 
the-line as the force necessary, in case the batteries at Algiers 
were to be attacked. Exmouth, twelve years later, with fuller 
information, thought and found five to be sufficient. 

Nelson's conduct and self-control was sorely tested by the 
necessity of temporizing with this petty foe, who reckoned 
securely on the embarrassments of Great Britain. He acted 
with great judgment, however, holding a high tone, and im- 
plying much in the way of menace, without at any time 
involving himself in a definite threat, from which he could 
not recede without humiliation ; careful and precise in his 
demands, but never receding from them, or allowing them to 
be evaded, when once made ; sensible of the difficulties in his 
way, as well those raised by his own Government as those 
dependent upon his opponent, but equally aware that he held 



602 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

in his hands, if authorized to use it, the power to suppress 
the career of depredation, upon which the Dey relied to sup- 
port his revenue, and to content his officers. Personally, he 
favored a short and summary proceeding, accordant to his 
own decided character. The Dey proving immovable when 
jfirst summoned, he proposed to the British Government 
" that on the 28th of Apiil next, when, if he means to send 
his cruisers to sea, they will be out, that, on that day, every 
ship under my command should have strict orders (to open 
on that day) to take, sink, burn, and destroy every Algerine, 
and that on that day the port of Algiers should be declared 
in a state of blockade. Thus the Dey could get neither com- 
merce, presents, or plunder; and, although the other Powers 
may rejoice at the Avar with us, yet I am firmly persuaded 
that it will be most advantageous to us for the next hundred 
years." At the same time, with his usual circumspection, he 
issued a general direction to all commanders of convoys to 
carry their charges well clear of the Algerine coast, until 
matters were settled. In the end, the British Ministry 
yielded much more than Nelson approved, but, however 
sorely against the grain, he carried out all his instructions 
with scrupulous subordination. It was only three days before 
the active campaign began with the sortie of the French 
fleet, that he was rejoined by the ship to whose captain were 
intrusted the final arrangements with Algiers. 

For his diplomatic and naval correspondence, Nelson had 
two principal secretaries, public and private, both, awkwardly 
enough, named Scott ; but the latter, being a clergyman and 
chaplain of the ship, was colloquially brevetted Doctor, a 
distinction which, for convenience, will be observed when it is 
necessary to mention him. He had become known to Nelson 
while serving in the same capacity with Sir Hyde Parker, 
and had been found very useful in the negotiations at Copen- 
hagen. An accomplished linguist and an omnivorous reader, 
Dr. Scott was doubly useful. Upon him devolved the trans- 
lating of all despatches and letters, not only from, but to, 
foreign courts and officials ; for Nelson made a point of send- 
ing with all such papers a copy in the language of the person 
addressed, and an apology for failing to do so sometimes 
appears, on account of his secretary's absence. The latter 



HIS STUDY OF CURRENT EVENTS G03 

was also a man of wide information, acqxiired, not as his 
superior's chiefly was, by mingling among men and dealing 
with affairs, but from books ; and the admiral, while rightly 
valuing the teachings of experience above all, was duly sensi- 
ble that one's own experience is susceptible of further exten- 
sion through that of others, imparted either by word or pen. 
Nelson entertained a persuasion, so Scott has told us, that no 
man ever put his hand to paper without having some informa- 
tion or theory to deliver, which he fancied was not generally 
known, and that this was worth looking after through all the 
encumbering rubbish. For the same reason, besides being 
naturally sociable, he liked to draw others into conversation, 
and to start subjects for discussion, from which, when fairly 
under way, he would withdraw himself into silence and allow 
the company to do the talking, both in order to gather ideas 
that might be useful to himself, and also to observe character 
transpiring in conversation. Bourrienne has told us that 
Bonaparte took pleasure in provoking similar debates. Scott 
himself, a man essentially unpractical, afforded Nelson amuse- 
ment as well as interest, and was the object of a good deal 
of innocent chafflng. He would, in those after-dinner gather- 
ings which Gillespie mentions, lead the doctor into arguments 
on literature, politics, Spanish and even naval affairs, and 
would occasionally provoke from him a lecture on navigation 
itself, to the great entertainment of Murray, Hardy, and the 
other officers present.^ "Ah, my dear Doctor!" he would 
say chaffingly, " give me knowledge practically acquired — 
experience ! experience ! experience ! and practical men ! " 

Nelson, however, was too big and too broad a man not to 
know that, while by doing tlie same thing, or bearing the 
same thing, many times, — by experience, that is, — one ac- 
quires a facility not otherwise communicable, in a novel situa- 
tion a man is abler to act, the more he has availed himself 
of the knowledge and the suggestions of others. Absorbed 
with the duties of his station, it was of the first importance 
that he should possess every information, and ponder every 
idea, small and great, bearing upon its conditions, as well as 
upon the general political state of Europe in that period of 

1 Many of these details are taken with little alteration from the " Life of 
Rev. A. J. Scott." 



604 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ominous waiting, wherein great events were evidently coming 
to birth. Day after day, Dr. Scott's biographer tells us, was 
passed by the two together, sitting in two black leathern arm- 
chairs with roomy pockets, stuffed with papers, written and 
printed, journals and pamphlets, gathered from every source 
— from prizes, from passing neutral vessels, from cruisers 
returning from neutral or friendly ports, or picked up by the 
doctor himself in the not infrequent trips on which he was 
sent, ostensibly for pleasure, but witli a keen eye also to the 
collection of intelligence. Marked externally by the abstrac- 
tion of a book-worm, entirely unpractical and heedless in the 
common affairs of life, and subject to an occasional flightiness 
of action, the result in part of an injury to his head while in 
the service, Scott gave those who saw him going about an 
impression of guilelessness, which covered him from the sus- 
picion of having a mission. He had, says his biographer, 
*' in union with a capacity for very difficult services, a sim- 
plicity that often put him at disadvantage in worldly matters, 
and it became a common joke with the Admiral, that ' the 
doctor would always want somebody to take care of him.' " 
Nelson had everything read to him ; first of all, news- 
papers, which were sent regularly to the fleet by British agents 
in various quarters. Upon them chiefly, and not upon Eng- 
land, he depended for knowledge of what was happening ; in 
Great Britain itself, as well as on the Continent. From ten to 
twelve weeks was no uncommon length of time for him to be 
without word from home. " I never hear from England," he 
wrote to Elliot in the summer of 1804, " but as we manage to 
get the Paris papers regularly through Spain. Erom ten days 
to a fortnight we get them from their date at Paris : therefore 
we know the very great events which are passing in Europe — 
at least as much as the French people ; " a shrewd limitation. 
These, therefore, together with Spanish, Italian, and other 
sheets, it was Scott's daily task to read aloud to his chief, who 
found therein not only information but amusement. He in- 
sisted also upon hearing the numerous ephemeral pamphlets, 
of which the age was prolific, and which found their way to 
him. His quickness in detecting the drift of an author Avas 
marvellous. Two or three pages of a pamphlet were generally 
sufficient to put him in complete possession of the writers 



I 



INDICATIONS OF TEMPERAMENT 605 

object, while nothing was too trivial for his attention where 
there existed a possibility of its contributing a clue to the prob- 
lems of his command. Not the least onerous of the doctor's 
duties was the deciphering of private letters found in prizes, 
a channel by which important public interests are often be- 
trayed. Nelson's quickness to see the bearing and value of 
an apparently trifling mention, dropped by the way by a care- 
less pen, rendered such an exercise of his ingenuity at once a 
pleasure and a profit. The public secretary, Mr. Scott, was 
equally struck with the alertness and sagacity of his employ- 
er's mind. " I have heard much of Lord Nelson's abilities as 
an officer and statesman, but the account of the latter is in- 
finitely short. In ray travels through the service I have met 
with no character in any degree equal to his Lordship ; his 
penetration is quick, judgment clear, wisdom great, and his 
decisions correct and decided : nor does he in company appear 
to bear any weight on his mind." It was with difficulty, after 
a prolonged session, that tlie doctor could at times beg off, and 
leave, stuffed in the arm-chair pockets, for another day's work, 
a dozen or two of such letters, sealed to Nelson by his im- 
perfect eyesight and inadequate mastery of other tongues. 
The arm-chairs, lashed together, formed at times a couch upon 
which the admiral " slept those brief slumbers for which he 
was remarkable ; " in those moments, doubtless, when anxiety 
about the enemy's movements did not permit him to go reg- 
ularly to bed. 

In common with all those closely associated with Nelson, 
Dr. Scott was particularly struck with the kindliness and cor- 
diality of his bearing and actions ; which is the more to be 
noted, because no one, probably, had more occasion to see the 
movements of irritability, of impatience, which lay very near 
the surface, than did his secretaries, through whom his most 
vexatious work must be done. That he was vehement to ex- 
press annoyance has appeared frequently in these pages. 
The first Lord Radstock, who was senior to him in the service, 
and knew him well, writing to his son, then a midshipman in 
the "Victory," is constant and extreme in his admiration of 
Nelson ; but he gives the caution to be careful of impressions 
made upon a chief upon whom advancement depends. Quick 
in all his ways, a moment's heedlessness, possibly misunder- 



606 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

stood or misrepresented, may produce lasting injury. "Lord 
Nelson is of so hasty a temper, that in spite of all his natural 
goodness, I should fear that he would too readily give ear to 
those in whom he had placed his confidence. He is a man of 
strong passions, and his prejudices are proportionate." "On 
many occasions," says another writer, " Lord Nelson evinced 
an impatience that has been considered as irreconcileable with 
magnanimity; but the secret workings of his soul have not 
been received into tlie account or analysis of character, for we 
find the same individual, while employed in watching the 
French fleet off Toulon, display the most unexampled patience 
and forbearance, and never betray the smallest symptom of in- 
quietude or disappointment." ^ Murray, the Captain of the 
Fleet, when first offered his appointment, had hesitated to 
accept. Upon Nelson urging him, he gave as his reason that 
the nature of the duties often led to disagreements between 
the admiral and his chief of staff, and that he was unwilling to 
risk any diminution of the regard existing between him and 
his Lordshij) ; a remark true enough in the general, but 
clearly of somewhat special application. Nelson assured him 
that, should anything go contrary to his wishes, he would 
waive his rank and explain or expostulate with him as his 
friend, and when, after two years' service, Murray had to 
leave the ship, he refused to replace him, — he would have 
Murray or none. In truth, such readiness to flare up must 
needs be the defect of that quality of promptness, that instant 
succession of deed to thought, which was a distinguishing 
feature of Nelson's genius and actions. Captain Hilly ar more 
than once alludes to this trait as characteristic of the fleet, to 
which its chief had transmitted his own spirit. " I have had 
to-day to lament," he says, speaking of some trifling disap- 
pointment, " the extreme promptitude with which we all move 
when near his lordship." 

Bvit, while traces of this failing may be detected here and 
there by the watchful reader, as Nelson himself gleaned use- 
ful indications amid the rubbishy mass of captured corre- 
spondence, there survives, among the remains left by those in 
daily contact with him, only the record of a frank, open bear- 

^ Memoir of Sir Thomas Hard}', in Clarke and M 'Arthur's Life of Nelson, 
vol. iii. p. 234. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF TEMPERAMENT 607 

ing, and unfailing active kindness. "Setting aside his hero- 
ism," wrote Dr. Scott after Trafalgar, '' when I think what 
an affectionate, fascinating little fellow he was, how dignified 
and pure his mind, how kind and condescending his manners, 
I become stupid with grief for what I have lost." " He is so 
cheerful and pleasant," wrote the public secretary, Mr. Scott, 
" that it is a happiness to be about his hand." Dr. Gillespie 
notes " his noble frankness of manners, freedom from vain 
formality and pomp (so necessary to the decoration of empty 
little great men), which can only be equalled by the unex- 
ampled glory of his naval career, and the watchful and 
persevering diligence with which he commands this fleet." 
"JSTelson was the man to love," said Captain Pulteney Malcolm, 
who knew intimately both liim and Wellington. " I received 
Captain Leake," Nelson himself says, speaking of an army 
officer on a special mission to the Mediterranean, " with that 
openness wliich was necessary to make myself as well ac- 
quainted with him in three days, as others might do in as many 
years. I have given him all the knowledge of the men, their 
views, &c. &c., as far as I have been able to form a judg- 
ment." The remark is valuable, for it shows that frankness 
and cordiality were recognized by him as the wisest and most 
politic method of dealing with men. "Our friend. Sir Alex- 
ander," he says testily, " is a very great diplomatic character, 
and even an admiral must not know what he is negotiating 
a,bout. You shall judge, viz., ' The Tunisian envoy is still 
here, negotiating. He is a moderate man ; and, apparently, 
the best disposed of any I ever did business with.' Could 
even the oldest diplomatic character be drier ? I hate such 
parade and nonsense." 

Captain Hillyar, Avho commanded one of the frigates that 
were ever coming and going, writes in his journal: ''If ex- 
treme kindness and attention could render me happy, I have 
this day experienced both from our revered and good com- 
mander-in-chief. How can I repay his kindness ? By obey- 
ing his injunctions 'not to be in a hurry to get married,'^ or 
by a continued perseverance in discharging those duties with 
alacrity and honour, which he is more immediately concerned 
in ? " " Lord Nelson talked a great deal against matrimony 
^ Hillyar was then engaged to a lady in Malta. 



608 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

yesterday, and I feel will not trust me at Malta, while we are 
capable of remaining at sea. It was all, however, in a good 
natui'ed way. He is going to charge me with two of his boys 
[midshipmen]. I am pleased that an opportunity is offered 
for showing my gratitude in a small degree for his almost 
fatherly kindness. I wish you knew him ; if he has failings, 
reflections on his virtues cause them to be forgotten, and the 
mind dwells with pleasure on a character where bravery, gen- 
erosity, and good nature, are joined to a heart that can feel for 
the woes of others, and delights in endeavouring to alleviate 
them." Hillyar was experiencing what Eadstock had re- 
marked : '' Gain his esteem, and there is nothing he will not 
dash through to put you forward." " Gain his esteem, and 
you will have nothing to fear, for I know not a more honour- 
able man existing, or one who would more readily do you 
justice in all respects." "I am well aware," wrote another 
young captain to i^elson himself, " of the good construction 
which your Lordship has ever been in the habit of putting on 
circumstances, although wearing the most unfavourable ap- 
pearances. . . . Your Lordship's good opinion constitutes the 
summit of my ambition, and the most effective spur to my 
endeavours." 

Nelson loved to bestow promotion, when deserved, on the 
spot, to give a man his spurs, if it might be, on the field of 
battle ; but vacancies would not always offer at the happy 
moment. A brother of Hillyar's was a midshipman in one 
of two boats, sent to visit a suspicious vessel, A sudden and 
staggering fire killed the lieutenant in command, besides dis- 
abling a number of the boats' crews. The men hesitated; 
but the lad, left in charge, cheered them on and carried the 
vessel by boarding. Although he was but a couple of months 
over fifteen, Nelson gave him at once his commission into the 
vacancy made by the lieutenant. One very dark night, the 
" Victory " being under way, a midshipman, at the imminent 
risk of his life, leaped into the sea to save a seaman who had 
fallen overboard, and otherwise would have been drowned. 
Nelson gave him, too, his commission the following morning ; 
but, seeing the jubilation among the young man's messmates, 
and thinking the act might be a dangerous precedent, he 
leaned over the poop and said, smiling good-naturedly, " Stop, 



PROTECTION OF BRITISH TRADE 609 

young gentlemen! Mr. Flin has done a gallant thing to-day, 
and he has done many gallant things before, for which he has 
now got his reward. But mind, I '11 have no more making 
lieutenants for men falling overboard." 

The power thus to reward at discretion, and speedily, 
though liable to abuse, was, he claimed, essential to the due 
influence of a commander-in-chief ; his subordinates must feel 
that it was in his power to make their future, to distinguish 
them, and that they were in so far dependent upon him. 
Nevertheless, with him as with others, personal interest had 
a weight which qualified his argument. The premature ^ and 
disastrous promotion of his stepson, at his request, by St. 
Vincent, was a practical abuse which in most minds would 
outweigh theoretical advantages. AYriting to Sir Peter Parker 
about this time, he said, ''You may be assured I will lose no 
time in making your grandson a post-captain. It is the only 
opportunity ever offered me, of showing that my feelings of 
gratitude to you are as warm and alive as when you first took 
me by the hand : I owe all my honours to you, and I am 
proud to acknowledge it to all the world." Such enduring 
gratitude is charming to see, and tends to show that Nelson 
recognized some other reason for Parker's favor to himself 
tlian deference to Suckling's position ; but it is scarcely a 
good working principle for the distribution of official patron- 
age, although the younger Parker was a good and gallant 
officer. 

Among the military duties that weighed upon Nelson, not 
the least was the protection of British trade. The narrow 
waters of the Mediterranean favored the operations of priva- 
teers, which did not have to go far from their ports, and found 
shelter everywhere ; for the littoral states, in their weakness 
and insecurity, could but feebly enforce neutrality either in 
their continental or insular territories. In fact, both parties 
to the war. Great Britain and France, derived from the in- 
fringement of neutrality advantages which checked their 
remonstrances, and gave the feebler nations an apt retort, 
when taken to task in their painful efforts to preserve an atti- 
tude that was rather double-faced than neutral. If France, on 

1 As Lad}' Nelson's first marriage was in 1779, Josiah Nisbet could not 
liave been eighteen when made a commander, in 1797. 

39 



610 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

tiie one hand, was deriving a considerable revenue from Span- 
ish subsidies, and subsisting an army corps upon Neapolitan 
territory, Great Britain, on the other, could scarcely have 
maintained her fleet in the Gulf of Lyons, if unable to get 
fresh provisions and water from neutral ports; for, save 
Gibraltar and Malta, she had none that was her own or allied. 
Under these conditions, small privateers, often mere row- 
boats, ^;)ut under the colors of France or the Italian Eepublic, 
swarmed in every port and inlet ; in the Adriatic, — a deep, 
secluded pocket, particularly favorable to marauding, — in the 
Ionian Islands, along the Barbary coast, upon the shores of 
Spain, and especially in Sicily, whose central position and 
extensive seaboard commanded every trade-route east of the 
Balearics. 

Nelson's correspondence is full of remonstrances addressed 
to the various neutral states — including even Austria, whose 
shore-line on the Adriatic was extensive — for their toleration 
of these abuses, which rested ultimately upon the fear of 
Bonaparte. He has, also, constant explanations to make to his 
own Government, or to British ministers at the different 
Courts, of the acts of his cruisers in destroying the depreda- 
tors within neutral limits, when found red-handed. He makes 
no apologies, but stands firmly by his officers, who, when right, 
could always count upon his support in trouble. He never 
left a man in the lurch, or damned him with faint approval. 
" The protection afforded the enemy's privateers and rowboats 
in the different neutral ports of these seas, so contrary to every 
known law of neutrality, is extremely destructive of our com- 
merce. , . . Although their conduct is infamous, yet their doing 
wrong is no rule why we should. There is a general principle 
which I have laid down for the regulation of the officers' con- 
duct under my command — which is never to break the neu- 
trality of any port or place ; but never to consider as neutral 
any place from whence an attack is allowed to be made. It is 
certainly justifiable to attack any vessel in a place from 
whence she makes an attack." " I very fully approve every 

part of Captain 's conduct on the above occasion," he 

writes to the Admiralty in such a case. 

The supplying of convoys, therefore, was ceaseless, for the 
depredations of the marauders were unending. " I am pulled 



EMPLOYMENT OF CRUISERS Cll 

to pieces by tlie demands of merchants for convoys," Nelson 
said ; and he recognized that it must be so, for he entirely dis- 
approved of even a fast-sailing vessel attempting to make a 
passage unprotected. " I wrote to the Admiralty for more 
cruisers until I was tired," he told Ball, "and they left off 
answering those parts of my letters. The late Admiralty 
thought I kept too many to the eastward of Sicily ; the Smyrna 
folks complain of me, so do the Adriatic, so they do between 
Cape de Gatte and Gibraltar. If I had the vessels, I do assure 
you not one of them should go prize-hunting : that I never 
have done, I am a poorer man than the day I was ordered to 
the Mediterranean command, by upwards of £1,000; but 
money I despise except as it is useful, and I expect my prize 
money is embarked in the Toulon fleet." *' I am distressed for 
frigates," was his continual cry. "From Cape St. Vincent to 
the head of the Adriatic I have only eight ; which, v/ith the 
service of watching Toulon, and the necessary frigates with 
the fleet, are absolutely not one half enough." For military 
duties, "frigates are the eyes of a fleet. I want ten more 
than I have in order to watch that the French should not 
escape me, and ten sloops besides, to do all duties." For nine 
stations which ought to be filled, "I have but two frigates; 
therefore, my dear Ball, have a little mercy, and do not think 
I have neglected the protection of the trade of Malta." This 
was written soon after joining the station, and he represents 
the number as diminishing as time passed. " It is shameful ! " 
he cries in a moment of intense anxiety. 

In this fewness of cruisers he was forced to keep his vessels 
constantly on the go, — to the Levant, to the Adriatic, to 
Sicily, to Italy, — scouring the coasts for privateers, gathering 
merchant ships by driblets, picking up information, and at the 
end of the round returning to ]\Ialta with their fractions of 
the large convoy. When this was assembled, a frigate or a 
ship-of-the-line, with one or two smaller ships of war, sailed 
Avith it for Gibraltar at a date fixed, approximately, months 
before. Meanwhile, at the latter place a similar process of col- 
lection had been going on from the ports of the western Medi- 
terranean, and, after the Malta convoy arrived, the whole 
started together in charge of a division, composed usually of 
vessels of war that had to return to England for repairs. 



612 THE LIFE OE KELSON 

To arrange and maintain this complicated process, and to 
dovetail it with the other necessary cruising duties, having in 
consideration Avhich ships should first go home, required care- 
ful study and long foresight — infinite management, in fact. 
" The going on in the routine of a station," he tells Ball, who 
seems to have trod on his toes, " if interrupted, is like stopping 
a watch — the whole machine gets wrong. If the Maidstone 
takes the convoy, aud, when Agincourt arrives, there is none 
for her or Thisbe, it puzzles me to know what orders to give 
them. If they chace the convoy to Gibraltar, the Maidstone 
may have gone on with it to England, and in that case, two 
ships, unless I begin to give a new arrangement, will either go 
home without convoy, or they must return [to Malta] in con- 
tradiction to the Admiralty's orders to send them home ; I am 
sure you see it in its true point of view." "I dare not send a 
frigate home without a convoy," he says later. "Not an officer 
in the service bows with more respect to the orders of the 
Admiralty than myself," he writes St. Vincent ; "but I am sure 
you will agree with me, that if I form plans for tlie sending 
home our convoys, and the clearing the different parts of the 
station from privateers, and the other services, requisite, and 
that the Admiralty in some respects makes their arrangements, 
we must clash." Then he points out how the Admiralty 
diverting a ship, unknown to him, has tumbled over a whole 
train of services, like a child's row of blocks. 

An extremely critical point in the homeward voyage Avas 
the first hundred miles west of Gibraltar ; and it was a greater 
thorn in Nelson's side, because of a French seventy-four, the 
" Aigle," which had succeeded in entering Cadiz just after he 
got off Toulon. For the ordinary policing of that locality he 
assigned a division of three frigates, under a Captain Gore, 
who possessed his confidence. "The enemy's privateers and 
cruisers," he tells him, "' are particularly destructive to our 
trade passing the skirts of the station." Privateering was 
thus reduced ; but when a convoy sailed, he tried always to 
have it accompanied through that stage by a ship of size suffi- 
cient to grapple with the "Aigle." For a while, indeed, he 
placed there an eighty-gun ship, but the gradual deterioration 
of his squadron and the increase of Latouche Treville's obliged 
him to recall her, and at times his anxiety was great ; not the 



HIS STATION DIVIDED G13 

less because Gore, like otlier frigate captains, entertained the 
fancy that his three frigates might contend with a ship-of-the- 
line, " Your intentions of attacking that ship with the small 
squadron under your command are certainly very laudable ; 
but I do not consider your force by any means equal to it." 
The question of two or three small ships against one large in- 
volves more considerations than number and weight of guns. 
Unity of direction and thickness of sides — defensive strength, 
that is — enter into the problem. As Hawke said, " Big ships 
take a good deal of drubbing." Howe's opinion was the 
same as Nelson's ; and Hardy, Nelson's captain, said, *' After 
what I have seen at Trafalgar, I am satisfied it would be mere 
folly, and ought never to succeed." ^ What Hardy saw at 
Trafalgar, however, was not frigates against ships-of-the- 
line, but vessels of the latter class opposed, smaller against 
greater. 

It seems singular, with such a weak link in the chain of com- 
munication from the Mediterranean to England, that the 
Admiralty, on the outbreak of the war with Spain, in the lat- 
ter part of 1804, should have divided Nelson's command at 
this very point, leaving as a somewhat debatable ground, for 
mutual jealousy, that through which valuable interests must 
pass, and where they must be transferred. The reason and 
manner of this division, impolitic and inopportune as it was, 
and bitterly as Nelson resented it, seem to have been mis- 
understood. Convinced that he could not endure another win- 
ter such as the last, he made a formal application, about the 
middle of August, 1804, for permission to go home for a while. 
" I consider the state of my health to be such as to make it 
absolutely necessary that I should return to England to re- 
establish it. Another winter such as the last, I feel myself 
unable to stand against. A few months of quiet may enable 
me to serve again next spring ; and I believe that no officer is 
more anxious to serve than myself." In accordance with this 
last intimation, which speaks his whole heart, he wrote pri- 
vately to the First Loi'd that he would like to come back in the 
spring, if his health were restored, as he believed it would be, 
and he assured him that his second, Bickerton, whose rank 
did not entitle him to the chief command under ordinary con- 
1 Philliiuore's " The Last of Nelson's Captains," p. 146. 



614 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ditions, was perfectly fitted to hold it during liis absence — in 
short, to keep the place warm for his return. 

Nelson knew that the Admiralty was besieged with admirals, 
many senior to himself, seeking for employment, and that it 
Avould be very difficult for it to resist the pressure for the va- 
cancy in "my favourite command," to resume which he was 
impelled by both his sense of duty and his love of glory. He 
wrote therefore to Elliot, and to the King of the Two Sicilies, 
in the same sense as he had to Melville, recalling his well- 
tried devotion to the interests of that Court, which a successor 
might not equally show, and suggesting that his cause would 
be strengthened by an application for his return on the part 
of the King. The latter consequently intimated to the British 
Government that he hoped Lord Nelson would be sent back. 
He was, in truth, so much agitated over the prospect of his 
going, that he offered him a house in either Palermo or Naples, 
if he wished to remain in the South to recruit ; an offer which 
Elliot, equally uneasy, urged him to accept. 

The Government did exactly what was asked. Nelson re- 
ceived permission to go to England, when he felt it necessary, 
leaving the command in the hands of Bickerton ; but at the 
same time the Admiralty had to meet the rush of claimants 
for the vacancy, all the more pressing because rumors were 
afloat of a Spanish war, which would make the Mediterranean 
not only the most important, but, in prize-money, the most 
lucrative command. Among the applicants was Sir John 
Orde, who had been nursing a technical grievance ever since 
he had been passed over, in Nelson's favor, for the command 
of the detachment with which the Battle of the Nile was 
fought. Nelson's leave was issued on the 6th of October, and 
on the 26th Orde was given a small squadron — five ships-of- 
the-line — to blockade Cadiz. Being senior to Nelson, and of 
course to Bickerton, he could only have this position by re- 
ducing the latter's station, which had extended to Cape Finis- 
terre. The line between the two commands was drawn at the 
Straits' mouth, a rather vague phrase, but Gibraltar was left 
with Nelson. Orde thus got the station for prize-money, and 
Nelson that for honor, which from youth until now he most 
valued. " The arrangement," wrote his friend. Lord Radstock, 
" will be a death-stroke to his hopes of the galleons : but as 



HIS STATION DIVIDED 615 

yoiir chief has ever showed himself to be as great a despiser 
of riches as he is a lover of glory, I am fully convinced in my 
own mind that he would sooner defeat the French fleet than 
capture fifty galleons." 

Nevertheless, Nelson was sorely aggrieved, and complained 
bitterly to his correspondents. " I have learnt not to be sur- 
prised at anything ; but the sending an officer to such a point, 
to take, if it is a Spanish war, the whole harvest, after all my 
trials (God knows unprofitable enough ! for I am a much 
poorer man than when we started in the Amphion, ) seems a 
little hard ; hwt patienzaj' ''He is sent off Cadiz to reap the 
golden harvest, as Campbell was to reap my sugar harvest. 
It 's very odd, two Admiralties to treat me so : surely I have 
dreamt that I have ' done the State some service.' But never 
mind ; I am superior to those who could treat me so." His 
contempt for money, however acquired, except as a secondary 
consideration, remained unchanged. " I believe I attend more 
to the French fleet than making captures ; but what I have, I 
can say as old Haddock said, ' it never cost a sailor a tear, 
nor the nation a farthing.' This thought is far better than 
prize-money ; — not that I despise money — quite the contrary, 
I wish I had one hundred thousand pounds this moment." '' I 
am keeping as many frigates as possible round me," he wrote 
to his friend Ball, "for I know the value of them on the day 
of battle : and compared with that day, what signifies any prizes 
they might take ? " ^ Nor did such utterances stand alone. " I 
hope war with Spain may be avoided," he wrote. " I want not 
riches at such a dreadful price. Peace for our Country is all I 
wish to fight for, — I mean, of course, an honourable one, with- 
out which it cannot be a secure one." But his outlays were 
very heavy. Besides the £1, 800 annually paid to Lady Nelson, 
he gave Lady Hamilton £1,200 a year, exclusive of what was 
spent on the house and grounds at Merton ; and it may be in- 
ferred from Dr. Gillespie that the cost of the cabin mess, be- 
yond the table money allowed by the Government, was assumed 
by him. He himself said, early in the cruise, " Unless we 
have a Spanish war, I shall live here at a great expense, 
although Mr. Chevalier [his steward] takes every care." 

1 Flag-officers had a share in all prizes taken by vessels of their squadrons. 



616 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

" God knows, in my own person, I spend as little money as 
any man ; but you^ know I love to give away." 

That he was thus sore was most natural ; but it was also 
natural that the Government should expect, in view of his 
strong representations about his health, that the three weeks 
between the issuing his leave and Orde's orders would have 
insured his being on his way home, before the latter reached 
his station. Had things fallen out so, it would not have been 
Nelson, the exceptional hero of exceptional services, but 
Bickerton, a man with no pecviliar claims as yet, who would 
have lost the prize-money; for Kelson himself had just won a 
suit against St. Vincent, which established that the moment 'a 
commander-in-chief left his station, his right lapsed and that 
of the next flag-officer commenced. Nor was the division of 
the station an unprecedented measure. It had been extended 
from the Straits to Cape Finisterre at the time St. Vincent 
withdrew from the Mediterranean, in 1796 ; and in 1802, when 
Lord Keith asked for additional aids, on account of the enor- 
mous administrative work, the Admiralty made of the request 
a pretext for restricting his field to the Mediterranean, a step 
which Keith successfully resisted. 

Before Nelson received his leave he had begun to change 
his mind about going home. This was due, partly, to a 
slight betterment in his health, which he at this time men- 
tions ; chiefly, it would seem, to the prospects of a Spanish 
war. This, by doubling the number of his enemies and the 
quarters whence they might come, contributed to the pleasur- 
able excitement that was always a tonic to his physical frame, 
and roused the eager desire for conspicuous action, which was 
his most prominent passion. Indications also assured him 
that the expectation of the French coming out, in which ap- 
pearances had so often deceived him, was now on the point 
of being realized ; that Bonaparte's projects, whatever they 
were, were approaching maturity. His "guess," founded on 
the reports before him, was wonderfully penetrative. He did 
not see all the way through the French mill-stone, but he 
saw very deep into it; his inference, indeed, was one in which 
intuition and sagacity bore equal shares. "If the Russians 
continue increasing their naval force in this country [that is, 

1 Davison. 



PROSPECTS OF A SPANISH WAR 617 

in the eastern Mediterranean], I do not think the French 
will venture to the eastward ; therefore, I rather expect they 
will, as the year advances, try to get out of the straits ; and 
should they accomplish it with 7,000 troops on board, I ain 
sure we should lose half our West India Islands, for I think 
they would go there, and not to Ireland. Whatever may be 
their destination, I shall certainly follow, be it even to the 
East Indies." The last allusion is interesting, for it shows 
the wide flight of his speculations, which had found utterance 
before in the casual remark that his ships were provisioned 
for a voyage to Madras ; and, even as a guess, it struck 
perilously near one of Bonaparte's purposes. The splendid 
decision, formulated so long before the case arose, to follow 
wherever they went, held in its womb the germ of the great 
campaign of Trafalgar ; while in the surmise that the Toulon 
fleet was bound to the West Indies, the arrow of conjecture 
had gone straight to the bull's-eye. 

In this same letter, addressed to General Villettes, at 
Malta, formerly his coadjutor at the siege of Bastia, Nelson, 
in the intimacy of friendship, reveals what was to him at 
once the secret of health and the fulfilment of desire ; the 
congenial atmosphere in which his being throve, and expanded 
to fulfil the limits of his genius. " Such a pursuit would do 
more, perhaps, towards restoring me to health than all the 
doctors ; but I fear " (his application for leave having gone in) 
"this is reserved for some happier man. Not that I com- 
plain ; I have had a good race of glory, but we are never 
satisfied, although I hope I am duly thankful for the past ; 
but one cannot help, being at sea, longing for a little more." 
"I hope," he had written a few months earlier to Lord Minto, 
"some day, very soon, to fulfil the warmest wishes of my 
Country and expectations of my friends. I hope you may be 
able, at some debate, to say, as your partiality has said be- 
fore, ' Nelson has done more than he has done before ; ' I can 
assure you it shall be a stimulus to my exertion on the day of 
battle. . . . Whatever happens, I have run a glorious race." 

On the 12th of October Nelson received a piece of news 
which elicited instantaneously a flash of action, illustrative 
at once of the promptness of his decisions and of the brisk- 
ness of temper that has been noted already. A letter arrived 



618 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

from Captain Gore, commanding the detachment outside of 
the Straits, that two frigates, sent from the Brest squadron by 
Admiral Cornwallis, had arrived, with a captain senior to 
himself, who had taken him under his orders, and carried 
two of Nelson's frigates off Cadiz to intercept the Spanish 
treasure-fleet expected there from America. Cornwallis 's 
action had been taken by orders from England, but no com- 
munication to that effect, either from him or from the Ad- 
miralty, reached Nelson at this moment. Astounded by a 
measure which could scarcely fail to cause war, and convinced, 
as he said, that Spain had no wish to go to war with Great 
Britain, he gave himself a night to pause ; but early next 
day he wrote to the Admiralty, intimating pretty plainly that, 
if done by its direction, this was not the way the commander 
of the Mediterranean fleet should receive word of so mo- 
mentous a step taken in his district, while to Gore he sent 
emphatic orders to disobey Cornwallis, although the latter 
was Nelson's senior. Summing up with admirable lucidity 
the facts before him, and thereby proving that the impression 
under which Cornwallis's action probably was taken was 
erroneous, he said : '' Unless you have much weightier reasons 
than the order of Admiral Cornwallis, or that you receive 
orders from the Admiralty, it is my most positive directions 
that neither you, or any ship under your orders, do molest or 
interrupt in any manner the lawful commerce of Spain, with 
whom we are at perfect peace and amity." 

It is permissible, because instructive, to note that in this 
order, while Nelson amply provides for discretion on the part 
of his subordinate, he throws the full weight of his authority 
on the difficult horn of a possible dilemma, the act — so mo- 
mentous to an oflicer — of disobedience to a present superior-; 
in this case the captain sent by Cornwallis. Contrast this 
with the Government's orders to the commander of the troops 
at Malta, when it wished him to send a garrison to Messina.^ 
Instead of saying, " You will send so many men, unless you 
think you cannot spare them,*' its oi'ders ran : " You will 
send, if you think you can spare them." Of course, as Nel- 
son invariably experienced, an officer addressed in the latter 
style found always a lion iii his path. So his orders to Gore 

1 Ante, p. 568. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF TEMPERAMENT G19 

were not " Obey, ty," but "Disobey, unless ;'' and Gore knew, 
as every man in the Mediterranean knew by long trial, that, 
if he disobeyed, he would have at his back, through thick 
and tliin, the first sea-officer in Great Britain. But Nelson's 
orders were always stamped with the positive, daring, lucid 
character of his genius and its conceptions ; and so, except in 
unworthy hands, they were fulfilled in spirit as well as in 
letter. 

An interesting illustration of this trenchant clearness is to 
be found in instructions given to the captain of the " Donegal," 
an eighty-gun ship, sent under very critical circumstances to 
cruise off Cadiz, in September, 1803. It appears to the author 
not only characteristic of Nelson, but a perfect example of 
the kind of directions a junior would wish to have in a diffi- 
cult case, when desirous to carry out the spirit of his supe- 
rior's orders. It explains itself. 

26th September, 1803. 
To Captain Siii Richard John Strachan, Bart., 
H. M. Ship Donegal. 

The occurrences which pass every day in Spain forbode, I fancy, a 
speedy War with England ; therefore it becomes proper for me to put 
you on your guai'd, and advise you how to act under particular cir- 
cumstances. By looking at the former fine of conduct on the part 
of Spain, which she followed just befoi'e the commencement of the 
last War, we may naturally expect the same events to happen. The 
French Admiral Richery was in Cadiz, blocked up by Admiral Man ; 
on August the 22nd, they came to sea, attended by the Spanish Jleet, 
wliich saw the French safe beyond St. Vincent, and returned into 
Cadiz. Admiral Man very properly did not choose to attack Admiral 
Richery under such an escort. This is a prelude to what I must re- 
quest your strict attention to; at the same time, I am fully aware 
that you must be guided, in some measure, by actual circumstances. 

I think it very probable, even before Si:)ain breaks with us, that 
they may send a Ship or two of the Line to see L'Aigle round Cape 
St. Vincent ; and that if you attack her in their presence, they may 
attack you ; and giving them possession of the Donegal, would be 
more than either you or I should wish, therefore T am certain it must 
be very comfortable for you to know my sentiments. From what 
you hear in Cadiz, you will judge how far you may venture yourself 
in company with a Spanish Squadron ; but if you are of opinion that 
you may trust yourself near them, keeping certainly out of gun-shot, 
send your Boat with a letter to the Spanish Commodore, and desire 



620 THE LIFE OE NELSON 

to know whether he means to defend the French Ships ; and get his 
answer m writing, and have it as plain as possible. If it be ' yes, 
that he will fire at you if you attack the French under his protection,' 
then, if you have force enough, make your attack on the whole body, 
and take them all if you can ; for I should consider such an answer 
as a perfect Declaration of "War. If you are too weak for such an 
attack, you must desist; but you certainly are fully authorized to take 
the Ships of Spain whenever you meet them. Should the answer be 
ambiguous, you must then act as your judgment may direct you, and 
I am sure that will be very projier. Only recollect, that it would be 
much better to let the French Ships escape, than to run too great a 
risk of losing the Donegal, yourself, and the Ship's company. 

I am, &c. 

Nelson and Bronte. 



This letter fulfils his own request to the Admiralty : '^ AU 
I wish and submit to their Lordships is, that if the business is 
left to me, my orders may be decisive." 

Later in the same day that Nelson received Gore's letter, 
the Admiralty's orders arrived, sent, as despatches too often 
were, by a vessel so small and slow that it would seem they 
counted upon her insignificance to elude an enemy's notice. 
The delay served, as has been said, to give proof of the rapidity 
of Nelson's action ; the receipt of the orders enabled him also to 
show how much clearer were his conceptions of adequacy than 
those of ordinary men. To stop treasure-ships, or to embargo 
merchant-ships, when difficulty was threatening, was no new 
idea to the British Government. The latter had been done 
with Baltic merchantmen at the time of the Armed Neutrality. 
In the case of Spain, it was a measure particularly efficacious, 
for the financial solvency and belligerent capacity of that 
country depended upon the galleons, which brought to her the 
tribute of her colonies ; and her relations and dealings Avith 
France at this time were so partial and suspicious as to justify 
precautions. Evidently, however, such a step, being avowedly 
preventive and not offensive, should be taken in such a way 
as to avert all chance of possible disaster. Several Spanish 
frigates being expected, the British Government charged four 
vessels of the same rate with the task of arresting them. 
Nelson, the instant he got his orders, detached to the spot an 
eighty-gun ship, to which he added four other cruisers, think- 



DECIDES NOT TO RETURN HOME 621 

ing, as he said in his orders to the captain selected, that ''this 
is a service of the highest importance, and that an officer of 
your rank and experience should be employed therein." With 
such odds against him, the Spanish commander would need 
no military justification for submission. As it was, he resisted, 
necessitating a fight, which under the circumstances was bar- 
barous and brutal, and ended in one of the Spanish vessels 
blowing up with several women on board ; a result due wholly 
to the blundering lack of foresight which sent a corporal's 
guard to do the work of a sheriff's posse. 

This incident, of the order to arrest the treasure-ships, 
which was made general for all vessels of that class, was 
probably the determining occasion of Nelson's decision to 
remain in the Mediterranean. War with Spain, with con- 
sequent increased activity on the part of France, though not 
certain, became probable. There was at that time on board 
the " Victory " a Dr. Lambton Este, who had gone to the 
Mediterranean in a civil capacity, and was on his way home. 
Nelson, hoping to return soon himself, asked Este to remain 
until he started, and to accompany him in a worn-out seventy- 
four, the " Superb," which he was holding for that purpose. 
It seems that, in looking forward to the resumption of his 
command, lie expected it would be the scene of a more wide- 
spread political activity, especially in the far East where Este 
had been employed, and that, for this purpose, he wished to 
attach the latter to his person. " There may be more occupa- 
tion there for us all, hereafter, than we just now foresee, or 
may expect." 

In confirmation of this general forecast, we are told by Dr. 
Scott that, when the admiral left England before Trafalgar, 
arrangements had been made with the Foreign Office for Este 
with six clerks to be attached to the flagshijD, to conduct the 
diplomatic correspondence. The fact is doubly interesting. 
It shows, on the one hand, the accuracy of Nelson's foresight 
as to the vast importance the Mediterranean was about to 
assume, to meet which he thus was making provision in a 
general way ; although neither he nor any other man could 
have anticipated the extraordinary, complicated snarl of the 
political threads in Napoleon's later years. The cares from 
these, it may be said in passing, were by Nelson's death 



622 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

devolved lapon Collingwood ; who, though a strong man, was 
killed by them, through general debility resulting from con- 
finement, and through organic injury produced by bending 
over his desk. On the other hand, it cannot but be grateful 
to those who admire the hero, to see that Nelson looked for- 
ward to no inglorious ease, but to a life of strenuous work, as 
well as, if it might be so, of military honor. Had he lived, 
Ave may hope, the days after Trafalgar would not have been 
the grave of his renown. 

On the first of November his decision was taken. He sent 
fur Este and said, ' ' Oh, my good fellow ! I have abandoned 
the idea of going to England, at present. I shall not go yet, 
and when I may go is quite uncertain — must depend upon 
events, and upon my own precarious health ; at the same time, 
1 am doing j^ou an evident injustice, by detaining you here so 
long in uncertainty." Este of course expressed his willing- 
ness to remain wliile needed, but Nelson interrupted him, 
saying, " No, my wish is that you should go, — I am anxious 
that you should go, and go without further delay. To tell you 
the truth, I am not entirely disinterested. Go home ; get con- 
firmed in your appointment, according to my desin^ and re- 
turn to me as soon afterwards as you can. Should I retain 
my command in the Mediterranean, with the powers already 
conceded to me, I shall require your assistance." It seems 
probable that he was anxious to get some one home as rapidly 
as possible, to forestall, if time permitted, a final recall, which 
the appointment of a successor would be. " Long before this 
time," he had written Lady Hamilton, ''I expect, another 
admiral is far on his way to supersede me. I should for your 
sake, and for many of our friends, have liked an odd hundred 
thousand pounds [by a Spanish war]; but, never inind. If 
they give me the choice of staying a few months longer, it will 
be very handsome ; and, for the sake of others, we would give 
up very much of our own felicity." 

The despatches and routine papers were got ready rapidly, 
and placed in charge of Este, who sailed for Lisbon, in a 
sloop-of-war, on the 6th of November, furnished with orders 
to all officials to expedite him on his way, and particularly to 
captains not to communicate with tlie ship, because the plague, 
then raging in Gibraltar, would involve her, if visited, in the 



ARRIVAL OF Slli JOHN ORDE 623 

delays of quarantine. On the 18th of November, off Cape St. 
Vincent, Este met the " Swiftsure," seventy-four, bringing 
Orde out. It has been charged that the latter discourteously 
delayed to notify Nelson of his taking over part of the sta- 
tion.^ It appears, however, from tliis encounter, that his 
letter to that effect, dated the 17th, ^ thougli headed "off 
Cadiz," was actually prepared before he reached his position 
there. It was forwarded to Nelson by the " Anson," whose 
captain was senior officer of the division till then blockading 
the port, whom Orde relieved and sent on with his despatch. 
The "Anson" joined Nelson on the loth of December. The 
" Swiftsure," which was also destined to his squadron, did not 
reach him until the 25th. It seems, therefore, fair to acquit 
Orde of a discourtesy as aimless as it would be reprehensible. 

Just before Este's departure Nelson had reconnoitred 
Toulon. A new vice-admiral had hoisted his flag in place of 
Latouche Treville, who had died on the 20th of August. " He 
has given me the slip," wrote Nelson, who felt himself balked 
of his vengeance. " The French papers say he died of walking 
so often up to the signal-post, upon Sepet, to watch us : I 
always pronounced that would be his death." His successor 
was Villeneuve, the predestined victim of Trafalgar. "They 
now amuse themselves with night-signals," Nelson informed 
the Eirst Lord; "and by the quantity of rockets and blue 
lights they show Avith every signal, they plainly mark their 
position. These gentlemen must soon be so perfect in theory, 
that they will come to sea to put their knowledge into jDractice. 
Could I see that day, it would make me happy." The time 
was now not far distant. The weariness of waiting was soon 
to give Avay to the anxious fever of doubtful and protracted 
pursuit, of prolonged uncertainty and steadfast endurance, 
through which he advanced to his final triumph, just as he 
had to those of the past. 

The seizure of the Spanish treasure-ships, with its lament- 
able catastrophe, took place on the 5th of October. Nelson 
had the news on the 8th of November, which, extraordinary as 
it may appear, was before the fact was known in Madrid. On 
the 10th of November, when the British minister received his 
passports upon his own demand, no word had reached there. 
1 Pettigrevv, vol. ii, p. 444, 2 Jficolas, vol, vi. p. 288. 



624 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

On the 15th, Nelson was informed that a British vessel had 
been fired upon by the batteries of Barcelona, which was an 
error ; but receiving at the same time a letter from the minis- 
ter, probably to the effect that he would break off relations on 
the 10th, he inferred that war existed, and issued orders for 
a general seizure of Spanish vessels of war aud commerce 
throughout the station. This was done on his own responsi- 
bility, but he guarded himself by stringent provisions against 
any injury beyond detention being inflicted; and he alleged, 
very reasonably, that a commander-in-chief who never got 
letters from home less than two months old must act upon his 
own motion. " I am completely in the dark. It is now more 
than two months since the John Bull [the last despatch boat] 
sailed." " I have set the whole Mediterranean to work," he 
tells Lady Hamilton on the 23d ; " and if I had had the spare 
troops at Malta at my disposal, Minorca would at this moment 
have had English colours flying." A Swedish ship, carrying a 
Spanish regiment from Barcelona to the latter island, was 
among the first caj)tures. 

" With respect to my making war upon Spain, and Sir John 
Orde not having- done it," so he wrote to Elliot, "I believe you 
will think I have acted not precipitately, but consistent with 
the firmness of John Bull. I can't tell what schemes ministers 
may have ; but when I am without orders, and unexpected 
occurrences arise, I shall always act as I think the honour and 
glory of my King and Country demand. Upon the most 
mature and serious consideration I can give the subject, the 
present lays within the compass of a nutshell. Our Ministers 
demand certain points to be conceded to them ; they, to give a 
spur, detain the Spanish treasure. Spain, the moment she 
hears of it, kicks your minister out of Madrid ; a plain proof 
they had not acceded to our propositions. Indeed, Mr. Frere,^ 
you will see by his letter, did not believe it would have a fa- 
vourable termination, even had not the frigates been detained. 
I send your Excellency his letters. I feel I have done 
perfectly right. No desire of wealth could influence my 
conduct ; for I had nothing to take worth two-penco to me. 
Sir John Orde was sent, if it was a Spanish war, to take the 
money ; but until he saw my orders, he did not act. I sup- 
1 Late British minister to Spain, 



DECISIVE PROMPTITUDE IN ACT 625 

pose he was fearful of that responsibility which 1 am ever 
ready to take upon me ; and now he is to wallow iu wealth, 
whilst I am left a beggar. But such things are. I receive the 
kindest letters from Lord Melville and the Secretary of State, 
but they think the French fleet is prize enough for me." No 
wonder Nelson found that diplomatists were slow, measured 
by himself as a standard ; but what a wonderful instinct it 
shows in him, that, Avith action ever prompt to the verge of 
precipitancy, he made so few blunders in deed. There are 
several errors of fact in his summary of reasons, but his action 
was absolutely well-timed — to the very hour. 

Meanwhile, and up to the loth of December, when Orde's 
letter was received, no reply had come to his application for 
leave, and no intimation of a successor. A fresh complication 
here arose by the entire break-down of one of his two junior 
admirals — Kear-Admiral Campbell — whose health became 
so affected that it was necessary to send him immediately 
home. He quitted the fleet on the 4th of December. Nelson 
rightly felt that he himself could not go, leaving Bickerton 
without any assistant. He went further ; for, when a rumor 
came that Orde was to relieve him, he determined that he 
would offer his services to him, as second, until a successor to 
Campbell should arrive. As there was friction between him- 
self and Orde, who had, besides, a not very pleasant ofiicial 
reputation, this intention, to take a lower place where he had 
been chief, was not only self-sacrificing, but extremely mag- 
nanimous; it was, however, disfigured by too much self-con- 
sciousness. " I have wrote to Lord Melville that I should 
make such an offer, and that I entreated him to send out a flag- 
oflficer as soon as possible, but I dare say Sir John Orde is too 
great a man to want my poor services, and that he will reject 
them ; be that as it may, you will, I am sure, agree with me, 
that I shall show my superiority to him by such an offer, and 
the world will see what a sacrifice I am ready to make for the 
service of my King and Country, for what greater sacrifice 
could I make, than serving for a moment under Sir John 
Orde, and giving up for that moment the society of all I hold 
most dear in this world ? " 

Orde's letter reached Nelson in Pula Roads, in the Gulf of 
Cagliari, at the southern extremity of Sardinia ; an out-of-the- 

40 



626 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

way position which probably accounts for much of its delay. 
He remained there, or in the Gulf of Palmas, a little to the 
westward, for about a week, and on the 19tli of December left 
for his station off Cape San Sebastian. At the latter place, on 
Christinas Day, he was joined by the " Swiftsure," which 
brought him a great batch of official mail that had come out 
Avith Orde. He thus received at one and the same time his 
leave to go home and the Admiralty's order reducing his 
station. Unluckily, the latter step, though taken much later 
than the issuing of his leave, had become known to him first, 
through Orde; and the ijnpression upon his mind remained 
with that firmness of prejudice which Eadstock had noted in 
him. He does not appear at any time to have made allowance 
for the fact that his command was cut down under a reason- 
able impression that he was about to quit it. 

Immediately after the " Swiftsure " joined at Rendezvous 97, 
he took the fleet off Toulon, The enemy was found to be still 
in port, but the rumors of an approaching movement, and of 
the embarkation of troops, were becoming more specific. He 
remained off the harbor for at least a week, and thence went 
to Madalena, where he anchored on the 11th of January, 1805. 
This was, though he knew it not, the end of the long watch 
off Toulon. 

Short as the time was, Nelson had already experienced the 
inconvenience of a senior admiral, lying, like an enemy, on 
the flank of his communications with Great Britain, and deal- 
ing as he pleased with his vessels. One frigate at least had 
been sent already to England, without his knowledge and 
consent. "I have in a former letter," he tells the First Lord, 
"stated my opinion freely upon the stations of Gibraltar and 
Cadiz being given to the same officer ; for without that is 
done, our convoys can never be considered safe. There is 
also another consideration, why the Officer at Gibraltar should 
be under the orders of the Admiral commanding the Mediter- 
ranean fleet — which is, that any admiral independent of that 
station, takes all the stores he chooses, or fancies he wants, 
for the service of his fleet ; thereby placing the fleet in the 
Gulf of Lyons in great distress for many articles." 

Off Toulon, having a large official mail to make up in reply 
to that brought by the " Swiftsure," he thought it both quicker 



ANNOYANCES FROM ORDE 627 



and safer, under all the conditions of the time, to send it to 
Lisbon. He therefore called on board the " Victory " a smart 
young frigate-captain, William Parker, a nephew of Lord St. 
Vincent, gave him orders to take the despatches to Lisbon, 
and added, " Sir John Orde takes my frigates from me, and 
sends them away in some other direction from what I wish. 
I cannot even get my despatches home. You must contrive 
to get to the westward and go into Lisbon, and avoid his 
ships. I have not signed your orders," alluding to mem- 
orandum instructions separate from the formal orders, " be- 
cause Sir John Orde is my senior officer; but, if it should 
come to a Court Martial, Hardy can swear to my handwriting, 
and you shall not be broke. Take your orders, and good bye ; 
and remember, Parker, if you cannot weather that fellow, I 
shall think you have not a drop of your old uncle's blood in 
your veins." The memorandum directed liim to pass Cape 
Spartel in the night, steering to the southward and westward 
to avoid Orde, and ended thus : " Bring-to [stop] for nothing, 
if you can help it. Hoist the signal for quarantine, and that 
you are charged with dispatches. If you are forced to speak 
by a superior officer, show him only my order for not interfer- 
ing with you; and unless he is an admiral, superior to me, 
you will obey my orders instead of any pretended ones from 
him, from my superior officer." 

Parker executed his commission successfully, but in doing 
so met with a curious adventure. Leaving Gibraltar with a 
north wind, favorable for his purpose, he passed Spartel as 
directed, and, the night being moonlight, saw in the distance 
Orde's squadron cruising under easy sail. Unluckily, one of 
the outlying lookout frigates discovered him, gave chase, and 
overtook him. Her captain himself came on board, and was 
about to give Parker orders not to proceed to the westward, 
Orde jealously objecting to any apparent intrusion upon his 
domain. Parker stopped him hastily from speaking on the 
quarter-deck, within earshot of others, and took him into the 
cabin. The stranger had been one of Nelson's old midship- 
men and a favorite ; had started with him in the " Againem- 
non," and by him had been made a commander after the Nile. 
" Captain Hoste," said Parker, " I believe you owe all your 
jidvancement iu the service to ray uncle, Lord St. Vincent, 



628 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and to Lord Nelson. I am avoiding Sir John Orde's squadron 
by desire of Lord Nelson ; you know his handwriting; I must 
go on." ^ (Parker being senior to Hoste, the latter could not 
detain him by his own authority; and he understood from 
this avowal that Orde's orders, if produced, would become 
a matter of record, would be disobeyed, and a court-martial 
must follow.) "The question of a court-martial would be 
very mischievous. Do you not think it would be better if you 
were not to meet the 'Amazon ' this night? " Captain Hoste, 
after a little reflection, left the ship without giving his 
admiral's orders to Parker.^ 

Having determined not to leave Bickerton alone, Nelson 
decided to keep secret his own leave to return to England. 
" I am much obliged by their Lordships' kind compliance 
with my request, wliich is absolutely necessary from the 
present state of my health," he writes on the 30th of 
December ; " and I shall avail myself of their Lordships' 
permission, the moment another admiral, in the room of Ad- 
miral Campbell, joins the fleet, unless the enemy's fleet 
should be at sea, when I should not think of quitting my 
command until after the battle." "I shall never quit my 
post," he tells a friend, " when the Prench fleet is at sea, as 
a commander-in-chief of great celebrity once did," — a not 
very generous fling at St. Vincent. " I would sooner die at 
my post, than have such a stigma upon my memory." 
"Nothing has kept me here," he writes Elliot, ''but the fear 
for the escape of the French fleet, and that they should get 
to either Naples or Sicily in the short days. Nothing but 
gratitude to those good Sovereigns could have induced me to 
stay one moment after Sir John Orde's extraordinary com- 
mand, for his general conduct towards me is not such as I had 
a right to expect." 

During this last month of monotonous routine, while off 
Toulon and at Madalena, he had occasion to express opinions 
on current general topics, which found little room in his 
mind after the French fleet began to move. There was then 
a report of a large expedition for foreign service forming in 

1 Author's italics. 

2 The whole of this account is taken from the Life of Sir AVilliam Parker. 
Phillimore's Last of Nelson's Captains, pp. 125-129. 



OPINIONS ON CURRENT EVENTS 629 

England, and rumor, as usual, had a thousand tongues as to 
its destination. " A blow struck in Europe," Nelson wrote 
to Lord ]\Ioira, "would do more towards making us respected, 
and of course facilitate a peace, than the possession of Mexico 
or Peru," — a direction towards which the commercial ambi- 
tions of Great Britain had a traditional inclination, fostered 
by some military men and statesmen, who foresaw the break-up 
of the Spanish colonial system. "Above all, I hope we shall 
have no buccaneering expeditions. Such services fritter away 
our troops and sliips, when they are so much wanted for more 
important occasions, and are of no use beyond enriching a few 
individuals. I know not, if these sentiments coincide with 
yours; but as glory, and not money, has through life been 
your pursuit, I should rather think that you will agree with 
me, that in Europe, and not abroad, is the place for us to 
strike a blow." "i like the idea of English troops getting 
into the Kingdom of JSTaples," he tells Elliot at this same 
time ; whence it may be inferred that that was the quarter he 
would now, as upon his first arrival, choose for British effort. 
" If they are well commanded, I am sure they will do well. 
They will have more wants than us sailors." The expedition, 
which sailed the following spring, was destined for the 
Mediterranean, and reinforced the garrisons of Gibraltar and 
Malta to an extent that made the latter a factor to be con- 
sidered in the strategy of the inland sea ; but when it arrived, 
Nelson had left the Mediterranean, not to return. 

As regards general politics, Nelson, writing to the Queen 
of Naples, took a gloomy view of the future. The Prime 
Minister of the Two Sicilies, Sir John Acton, had some time 
before been forced out of office and had retired to Palermo, 
an event produced by the pressure of French influence, which 
Nelson regarded now as absolutely dominant in that kingdom, 
and menacing to Europe at large. "Never, perhaps, was 
Europe more critically situated than at this moment, and 
never was the probability of universal Monarchy more nearly 
being realized, than in the person of the Corsican. I can see 
but little difference between the name of Emperor, King, or 
Prefect, if they perfectly obey his despotic orders. Prussia 
is trying to be destroyed last — Spain is little better than a 
province of France — Russia does nothing on the grand scale. 



630 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Would to God these great Powers reflected, that the bohlest 
measures are the safest ! They allow small states to fall, and 
to serve the enormous power of France, without appearing to 
reflect that every kingdom which is annexed to France, makes 
their own existence, as independent states, more precarious." 
How shrewd a prophecy this was as regards Prussia and 
Spain, those two countries were to learn by bitter experience ; 
and remote Russia herself, though she escaped the last 
humiliation, saw in the gigantic hosts whose onset a few years 
later shook her to her centre, the armed subjects of the many 
smaller states, in whose subjugation she had acquiesced dur- 
ing the period of the Czar's moral subservience to ISTapoleon. 

Nelson's essentially military genius had in political matters 
a keenly sensitive intuition of the probable action of his fel- 
low-warrior, Bonaparte. " Russia's going to war in the way 
I am sure she will, will cause the loss of Naples and Sardinia; 
for that Court will not send 100,000 men into Italy, and less 
are useless for any grand purpose." " Your Excellency's 
summary account of the situation of Naples since the negoti- 
ations with Russia," he wrote to Elliot in October, " are per- 
fectly clear ; but the times are such that kingdoms must not 
be played with. So far from Russia assisting Naples, it may 
involve her, without the greatest care and circumspection, in 
total ruin. Naples must not be hastily involved in war with 
France. Sicily must be saved. The Calabrians must be kept 
from the entrance of French troops. If we are consulted, we 
must assist Naples in keeping off the blow as long as pos- 
sible." That Napoleon's action would have been as here sur- 
mised, had his purposes then tended towards the Mediterranean 
instead of the English Channel, we have his own assertion. 
" At the solicitation of your ambassador at St. Petersburg," 
wrote he to the Queen of Naples, three months later, referring 
to the same subject, "ten thousand Russians have been sent 
to Corfu. . . . If it had entered into my plans to make war 
upon the King of Naples, I should have done it on the en- 
trance of the first Russian in Corfu, but I wish for peace with 
Naples, with Europe entire, with England even." Napoleon's 
wishes for peace, except on the condition of having his own 
way, are scarcely to be taken seriously ; but his care to keep 
things quiet in the South corroborates the other indications of 



NELSON LEAVES MADALENA 631 

his firm purpose to invade England. He was too astute to 
precipitate troubles elsewhere while that was pending. The 
appearance of the Russians in Corfu, although unwise in 
Nelson's view, relieved his fears for the islands and the 
Morea, and enabled him to reduce a little his detachment 
about the heel of Italy. 

Towards the middle of December Nelson had received in- 
formation, which was substantially correct, " from various 
places, and amongst others, from the King of Sardinia [then 
in Gaeta], that the French were assembling troops near 
Toulon, and had taken some of the best troops and a corps 
of cavalry from the Riviera of Genoa. Every seaman was 
pressed and sent to Toulon. On the 16th the Active spoke 
a vessel from Marseilles, who reported that seven thousand 
troops had embarked on board the French fleet." 

It was in Madalena Roads that the long-expected summons 
came at last. In the afternoon of January 19, 1805, blowing 
a heavy gale of wind from the northwest, the two lookout 
frigates from off Toulon came in sight, with the signal flying 
that the French fleet was at sea. At 3 p. m. they anchored 
near the " Victory." Three hours later Nelson had left 
Madalena forever. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Escape and Pursuit of the Toulon Fleet. — Nelson's Return 
TO England. 

January-August, 1805. Age, 46. 

TO uuderst.atid rightly the movements of Nelson during the 
first months of 1805, up to his return to England in 
August, and to appreciate fully the influence of this closing 
period of his career upon the plans and fortunes of Napoleon, 
it is necessary to state briefly the projects of the latter, as 
formulated in his correspondence. 

The great object of the Emperor was to invade England, 
crossing the Channel with the army, 150,000 strong, which 
for two years past he had been assembling and drilling in 
the neighborhood of Boulogne. To this end all his plans 
were subsidiary — to it all movements at this moment were 
intended to conduce. He had no illusions as to the difficulties 
of the enterprise ; he recognized fully that the odds were 
against success, but he had too often achieved the apparently 
impossible to permit the word to stop him in an attempt, 
which, if accomplished, would cause all other obstacles to 
disappear from his path of conquest. There were chances 
in his favor. Warily and steadfastly he advanced, step by 
step, determined to take no risk that could by the utmost 
care be changed into security, but equally resolved to dare 
the hazard, if by the military movements set in action by 
his unsurpassed genius, he could for a moment obtain the 
particular combination which would, to use his own phrase, 
make him master of the world. What if the soldiers of the 
Grand Army never returned from England ? There were 
still in France men enough, as good as they were before his 
energizing spirit wrought them into the force which in its 
might trod the Continent under foot. Like Nelson dying at 
Trafalgar, it too would have laid down its life, leaving its 



NAPOLEON'S PLANS, 1805 633 

work finished. Neither man nor army could have a prouder 
memorial. 

The particular combination upon which Napoleon was will- 
ing to stake everything was a naval control of the Straits of 
Dover for a very few days, coincident with the presence there 
of an army ready and equipped to cross at once. The latter 
condition was merely a question of preparation — long, tedious, 
and expensive, but perfectly feasible. In tlie early months 
of 1805 it was realized. The army, a substantial, absolute 
fact, was there, awaiting only the throwing of the bridge. 
The naval part of the problem was far more difficult. In the 
face of the naval suprenuxcy of Great Britain, the sought-for 
control could only be casual and transient — a fleeting oppor- 
tunity to be seized, utilized, and so to disappear. Its realiza- 
tion must be effected by stratagem, by successful deception 
and evasion. The coveted superiority would be not actual, 
but local, — the French fleet in force there, the British fleet, 
though the greater in force, elsewhere; the weight of the 
former concentrated at one point by simultaneous movements 
of its different detachments, which movements had been so 
calculated and directed that they had misled the British divi- 
sions, and, of themselves, diverted them from the decisive 
centre. Subsidiary to this main effort, Napoleon also con- 
templated a simultaneous landing of some twenty thousand 
men in Ireland, which, like the naval movements, would dis- 
tract and tend to divide the unity of the British resistance. 
The British admirals considered this project to be easier than 
the invasion of Great Britain, and it engaged their much more 
serious attention. 

There were three principal French detachments to be 
united, — in Brest twenty ships, in Toulon ten, in Eochefort 
five. To these the outbreak of the war between Great Britain 
and Spain added the forces of the latter kingdom, in Ferrol 
and Cadiz, aggregating fifteen serviceable ships ; but this was 
not until March, 1805. Of the three French contingents, the 
one from Rochefort was small ; and, as a factor, although 
important, it was not essential. Its failure might weaken or 
impede the progress of the general movement, without en- 
tirely destroying it ; but it was of necessity that the Toulon 
and Brest divisions both should fulfil their missions, accu- 



I 



634 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

rately and on time, if the great combination, of which they 
were parts, was to advance to a triumphant conclusion. This 
emphasized to the British the importance, which Nelson 
always so keenly felt, of meeting the enemy immediately after 
they left port. Once away, and their destination in doubt, 
the chances in favor of any scheme were multiplied. In their 
gi-eatest and final effort, Cornwallis, off Brest, was fortunate, 
in that the plans of the Emperor first, and afterwards unusual 
weather conditions, retained the French fleet there in harbor ; 
a result to which the material efficiency of his own ships, and 
their nearness to their base, much contributed. 

Upon Nelson, with his crazy ships, on the other hand, 
fell the burden of counteracting a successful evasion of the 
Toulon fleet, of foiling, by sagacious and untiring pursuit 
through immense and protracted discouragements, the efforts 
of the one division which had been committed to his watch. 
Although it became much superior to his own force, he drove 
it out of the position in the West Indies first appointed for 
the meeting, followed it back to Europe, arrived before it, 
and then, finding it had gone to Ferrol, carried his squadron, 
without orders, counselled simply by his own genius, to the 
aid of Cornwallis ; by which act the British navy, to the num- 
ber of thirty-five ships-of-the-line, was massed in a central 
position, separating the two enemy's bodies, and able to act 
decisively against a foe approaching from either direction. 
Thus a second time he prevented the enemy from forming a 
junction, unless they fought for it — an alternative Napoleon 
wished to avoid. To him fell all the straiti of uncertainty, all 
the doubtful and complicated mental effort, all the active 
strategic movement, of the campaign, and to him consequently 
has been attributed justly the greater meed of glory ; though 
care must be taken not to ignore or undervalue the well-played 
parts of other admirals, which were essential to the success of 
the great defensive campaign comprehended u.nder the name 
Trafalgar. 

The point selected by the Emperor for the meeting of his 
naval divisions, in both the unsuccessful attempts made in 
1805, was the West Indies. There was the most powerful 
foreign arsenal, Martinique, left in the hands of France, and 
there the greatest single interest of the widespread commerce 



HIS PART IN THE NAVAL CAMPAIGN (535 

upon which depended the life of Great Britain. The latter, 
therefore, was specially sensitive to anything threatening the 
safety of the West India Islands. "T should think the West 
Indies the more likely place for the French to succeed in," 
Avrote Nelson to Ball, on the 6th of September, 1804. " Sup- 
pose the Toulon fleet escapes, and gets out of the Straits, I 
rather think I should bend my course to the westward ; for if 
they carry 7,000 men — with what they have at Martinico 
and Guadaloupe — St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent, Antigua, 
and St. Kitts would fall, and, in that case, England would be 
so clamorous for peace that we should humble ourselves." 
This is a noteworthy passage, for it shows great sagacity of 
prediction, and, in announcing beforehand his resolve, — of 
which this is not the sole previous mention, — it dispels 
entirely the idea that he was decoyed to the West Indies. It 
explains, also, the remarkable outburst of gratitude that 
hailed him on his return -from a chase which had been wholly 
unsuccessful as regards his own chief object — the annihila- 
tion of the French fleet. He had failed to find it, but he had 
driven the enemy out of the West Indies before they could 
do any serious injury to the vital interests of the country. 
A man cannot be said to be decoyed, because, in pursuance of 
a judgment deliberately formed beforehand, he does the thing 
which the moment demands ; unless it can be shown that he 
has thereby uncovered greater interests. This Nelson did not 
do. He saved the West Indies, and returned in time to pro- 
tect Great Britain and Ireland from invasion. 

It is through the perplexities of this momentous period that 
we have now to follow him, and we shall do so to most advan- 
tage by taking as our clue his own avowed primary motive of 
action, the finding and destroying of the French fleet. A 
man dealing with Napoleon was bound to meet perplexities 
innumerable, to thread a winding and devious track, branch- 
ing out often into false trails that led nowhere, and confused 
by cross-lights which glittered only to mislead. In such a 
case, as in the doubtful paths of common life, the only sure 
guide to a man's feet is principle ; and Nelson's principle 
was the destruction of the French fleet. No other interest, 
his own least of all, could divert him from it. For it he was 
willing not only to sacrifice fortune, but to risk renown ; and 



636 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

SO, amid troubles manifold, lie walked steadfastly iu the light 
of the single eye, 

Wliile Kapoleon's object remained the same throughout, his 
methods received various modifications, as all plans must do 
Avlien circumstances cliange.' In his original intention the 
execution of the main effort was intrusted to Latouche Tre- 
ville, by far and away the best admiral he had. Upon his 
death, the Toulon fleet was committed to Villeneuve. Its sail- 
ing was to take place as nearly as possible at the same time as 
that of the Rochefort division. They were to go to the West 
Indies, proceed at once, independently, to offensive operations, 
then to unite and return together to Rochefort. Napoleon's 
calculation was that the British, impressed by this simul- 
taneous departure, and uncertain about the enemy's purpose, 
must send at once tliirty ships-of-the-line in pursuit, in order to 
secure all the different quarters they would think endangered. 
This diversion, if realized, would facilitate the operations of the 
Brest fleet, which was to land an army corps in Ireland, and 
then to cover the crossing of the main body at Boulogne into 
England; the precise character of its movements depending 
necessarily upon conditions of wind at the moment of 
execution. 

The Eochefort ships sailed on the 11th of January. For a 
week before and a week after that date the winds at Toulon 
hung between northeast and southeast, favorable, therefore, 
for a voyage to the Straits of Gibraltar ; but Villeneuve 
argued, judiciously, that a fleet intent on evasion only, and to 
avoid fighting, should move with great speed until lost to 
sight — that is, should start with a very fresh breeze, the 
direction of which was of secondary moment. This view of 
the matter escaped Nelson's attention, and therefore con- 
tributed seriously to mislead him in his reasoning as to the 
enemy's probable object. 

On the 17th of January the wind at Toulon shifted to 
north-northwest, with signs of an approaching gale, such as 
the Gulf of Lyons is noted for. The next morning Ville- 
neuve sent a division to drive away Nelson's lookouts. This 
duty was imperfectly performed. It should have been done 
by a frigate squadron strong enough to force them out of 
sight of the main body, and having orders to rejoin the latter 



SAtLlNG 01* THE FREiSTCH FLEET 637 

at a distant rendezvous. As it was, the British frigates did not 
lose touch of the hostile fleet, which sailed that evening. 
They dogged it late into the night, going at times thirteen 
knots before the blast of the storm, in order to keep clear of 
the enemy ; and at two in the morning of January 19th, being 
then in the latitude of Ajaccio, satisfied that the French were 
steering steadily south-southwest, and under a press of sail, 
which indicated a mission of importance, they parted company 
and hastened to Nelson, whom they joined twelve hours later, 
as already stated. 

Nelson needed no time to deliberate. His mind was long 
before fixed to follow, and there was but one way to do so. 
The enemy's course, as reported, led to the southern end of 
Sardinia, after reaching which the wind was fair for Naples, 
Sicily, and the East. The British ships were moored — two 
anchors down. At half-past four they were under way, stand- 
ing in single column for. the narrow passage between Biche 
and Sardinia, the " Victory " leading, each vessel steering by 
the stern lights of the one ahead of her. At seven p. m. all 
were clear, and the fleet hauled up along the east coast of 
Sardinia, which made a lee for them. "At midnight," Nelson 
notes in his journal, " moderate breezes and clear." During 
the same hours the untrained squadron of Villeneuve was 
losing topmasts in the fury of the gale. 

The following afternoon,^ as the British drew out from un- 
der the lee of Sardinia, they found the wind blowing a hard 
gale from south-southwest, which lasted all that night. The 
fleet could make no way against it, but neither could the 
French utilize it, unless, which was unlikely, they had got 
much farther to the southward than Nelson had. When he 
left Madalena, he had sent a frigate ahead, with orders to 
round Sardinia by the south and try to get sight or word of 
the enemy. On the morning of the 22d she rejoined, the 
fleet having then drifted to fifty miles east of Cape Carbonara, 
the southeastern point of Sardinia. At 11 A. m. her captain 
informed Nelson that the afternoon before he had seen a French 
frigate standing into the Gulf of Cagliari, but, the weather 

1 At noon, January 20, " Mount Santo bore N. AV., distant six leagues." — 
" Victory'' s" Log. Cape Monte Santo is sixty miles north of the southern 
extremity of Sardinia. 



638 THE LIFE OF KELSON 

being thick, giving an horizon of only three miles, nothing 
more had been discovered. The admiral had sent word of the 
French sailing to Acton at Palermo, and through him to 
Naples and Malta, Ball being requested to seek for informa- 
tion in every practicable direction. Naples was for the mo- 
ment safe, as the British squadron stood across any possible 
road by which the French could approach it. 

The gale, hauling gradually to the westward, lasted in its 
force until the morning of January 2oth. During these three 
days Nelson received no news, but he did much thinking and 
had made up his mind. The French might be intending to 
land in Cagliari, to windward of which they had been during 
these four days that he had been to leeward. With Cagliari, 
therefore, he must communicate; the Viceroy of Sardinia 
would know if any landing had been attempted or threatened. 
If Sardinia was safe, he would next go or send to Palermo for 
news, and thence push for the Faro of Messina, where he 
would cover both that important fortress and the approaches 
to Naples from either side of Sicily. "You will believe my 
anxiety," he Avrote to Acton in Palermo, on the 2oth. "I 
have neither ate, drank, or slept with any comfort since last 
Sunday " (the 20th). "I am naturally very anxious," he tells 
Ball, " therefore you must forgive my short letter. We have 
a dead foul wind and heavy sea. I cannot, for want of frig- 
ates, send off this letter." The lack of small cruisers, so often 
lamented in quieter days, now embarrassed him cruelly. The 
few he had were dispersed in all directions in search of news, 
and to communicate with Acton he had to detach one of his 
fastest ships-of-the-line, the " Leviathan," intending himself 
to follow her with the fleet to Palermo. At the latter point 
he could obtain all the intelligence of the common enemy 
which might have reached any Sicilian port, before he carried 
out his already formed purpose of chasing to leeward, to the 
Morea and Egypt. With firm grip, though in agony of mind, 
he held himself in hand, determined, burning as he was to 
pursue somewhere, not to yield the advantage of the wind 
till he had reached a reasonable certainty — as in 1798 — that 
the circumstances justified it. " I hope," he says to Acton, 
" that the governor of Augusta ^ will not give up the post to 
^ On the east coast of Sicily. 



PERPLEXITIES AND ANXIETY 639 

the French fleet ; but if he does, I shall go in and attack them ; 
for I consider the destruction of the enemy's fleet of so much 
consequence, that I would gladly have half of mine burnt to 
effect their destruction. I am in a fever. God send I may 
find them ! " Throughout the long chase which followed, all, 
so to say, slept on their arms. On the 11th of March he 
wrote : " Ever since January 21st we have been prepared for 
battle : not a bulkhead ^ up in the fleet. Night or day, it is 
my determination not to lose one moment in attacking them." 
On the 26th Nelson communicated with Cagliari, and 
learned that no landing had been attempted in Sardinia. The 
same day the frigate "Phoebe" rejoined, with information 
that a French eighty-gun ship had anchored in Ajaccio on the 
evening of the 19th, dismasted and crippled. Putting these 
facts together, and in connection with his own movements, he 
inferred conclusively that either the French had gone back to 
Toulon in consequence of injuries, or that they had given him 
the slip, had got round Sicily, and proceeded to the eastward. 
The latter was improbable, because the westerly gales, as he 
had noted, could scarcely have allowed them to weather 
Maritimo ; ^ it was not, however, impossible. A return to 
Toulon was, antecedently, equally improbable, although it 
proved to be the alternative adopted by Villeneuve. "Al- 
though I knew one of the French ships was crippled, yet I 
considered the character of Bonaparte ; and that the orders 
given by him, on the banks of the Seine, would not take into 
consideration winds or weather; nor indeed could the acci- 
dent of three or four ships alter, in my ojnniori,^ a destination 
of importance : therefore such an accident did not weigh in 
my mind and I went first to the Morea and ' then to Egypt." 
This quotation is especially interesting, as it proves how 
closely Nelson scanned every known element in a problem, 
even to the temperament of his opponent ; and it also shows 
the substantial agreement in judgment between him and 
Napoleon. The latter, Tliiers writes, " was sensibly displeased 

1 Bulkheads are the light partitions which divide cabins, offices, etc. from 
the rest of the decks. For battle they are removed to allow freer communi- 
cation, and to lessen the risk of fire and splinters. 

2 An island twenty miles west of Sicily. 
8 Author's italics. 



640 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

on hearing of this resultless sortie. 'What is to be done,' he 
said, ' with admirals who allow their spirits to sink, and de- 
termine to hasten home at the first damage they receive ? All 
the captains ought to have had sealed orders to meet off the 
Canary Islands. The damages should have been repaired en 
route. A few topmasts carried away, some casualties in a gale 
of wind, were every-day occurrences. But the great evil of our 
Navy is, that the men who command it are unused to all the 
risks of command.' " 

Still without definite tidings, compelled to act upon his own 
inferences — for merely doing nothing was action under such 
circumstances — Nelson reasoned that, if the French had 
returned, he could not overtake them, and if they had gone 
east, he had no time to lose before following. He fell back 
therefore from his windward position to the Straits of Messina, 
through Avhich the whole squadron beat on the 31st of Jan- 
uary — "a thing unprecedented in nautical history," he wrote 
to the Admiralty, " but although the danger from the rapidity 
of the current was great, yet so was the object of my pursuit ; 
and I relied with confidence on the zeal and ability of the fleet 
under my command." The same day, knowing now that 
Sicily and Naples were not threatened, he despatched six 
cruisers for intelligence, "in all directions from Tunis to 
Toulon ; " three of them being frigates, which were to rendez- 
vous off the latter port and resume the watch of the Erench, if 
found there. A seventh vessel was sent ahead of the squadron 
to Koron, off which he appeared on the 2d of February, and, 
still getting no news, went on to Alexandria, where he com- 
municated with the British consul on the 7th. "I beg the 
boat may not be detained, nor must any communication be 
had with the officer, so as to put the ship in quarantine. The 
officer is ordered not to wait more than thirty minutes ; for 
you will readily believe my anxiety to find out the enemy's 
fleet." No news was to be had ; but it was ascertained that 
Egypt was practically defenceless against any renewed 
attempts of the French. 

Nelson at once started back to the westward. On the 19th 
of February, twelve days after leaving Alexandria, he was off 
Malta, and there for the first time received information that 
the enemy had returned to Toulon in a very crippled state. 



DECIDES TO CHASE TO EGYPT 641 

It was now necessary to regain his station as speedily as pos- 
sible, and also to resume the operation of victualling the 
squadron, which had been interrupted at Madalena by the 
news of the enemy's sailing. The captain left there in charge 
of the transports had taken them for safety to Malta, in pur- 
suance of the orders left with him, and they would have to be 
convoyed again to the Gulf of Palmas, which was appointed 
for their joining. The incident shows at once the forehanded- 
ness of Nelson, in that he was able immediately to go on so 
long a chase, and also the difl&culties attendant upon the 
administration of the fleet. Against the prevailing winds the 
convoy did not reach Palmas until the 14th of March. The 
fleet had preceded it there by a week. After a tedious beat, 
in which eight days were consumed to make the three hundred 
and fifty miles to windward, Nelson anchored on the 27th of 
February in Pula Roads, Gulf of Cagliari, just to hold on. 
" What weather ! " wrote he to Bickerton, when the anchor 
dropped. " Did you ever see such in almost any country? It 
has forced me to anchor here, in order to prevent being drove 
to leeward, but I shall go to sea the moment it moderates." 
Palmas is only forty miles to windward of Pula, but it was 
not till the 8th of March, after three or four ineffectual efforts, 
that the squadron got there. " From the 19th of February to 
this day," wrote Nelson to Ball, " have we been beating, and 
only now going to anchor here as it blows a gale of wind at 
northwest. It has been without exception, the very worst 
weather I have ever seen." Bad as it was, it was but a 
sample of that he was to meet a month later, in the most 
wearing episode of his anxious life. 

Besides the weary struggle with foul winds and weather, 
other great disappointments and vexations met Nelson at Pal- 
mas. During his absence to the eastward, one despatch vessel 
had been wrecked off Cadiz and fallen into the hands of the 
Spaniards, another had been intercepted by the battered 
French fleet as it approached Toulon, and a convoy, home- 
ward-bound fi-om Malta, had been waylaid, the two small 
ships of war which formed the escort had been taken, and the 
merchant ships dispersed. This last misfortune he ascribed 
unhesitatingly to the division of the command. " It would not 
have happened, could I have ordered the officer off Cadiz to 

41 



642 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

send ships to protect them." The incident was not without 
its compensations to one who valued honor above loss, for his 
two petty cruisers had honored themselves and him by such a 
desperate resistance, before surrendering to superior force, that 
the convoy had time to scatter, and most of it escaped. There 
was reason to fear that the despatch vessel taken off Toulon 
had mistaken the French fleet for the British, which it had 
expected to find outside, and that her commander maght have 
had to haul down his flag before getting opportunity to throw 
the mail-bags overboard. In that case, both public and private 
letters had gone into the enemy's possession. " I do assure 
you, my dearest Emma," he Avrote Lady Hamilton, "that 
nothing can be more miserable, or unhappy, than your poor 
Nelson." Besides the failure to find the French, "You will 
conceive my disappointment ! It is now ^ from November 2nd 
that I have had a line from England." 

A characteristic letter was elicited from Nelson by the loss 
of the despatch- vessel off Cadiz, the brig " Eaven," whose 
commander. Captain Layman, had gained his cordial profes- 
sional esteem in the Copenhagen expedition, in connection 
with which he has already been mentioned. As usual in the 
case of a wreck, a court-martial was held. This censured the 
captain, much to Nelson's vexation ; the more so because, at 
his request, Layman had not produced before the court certain 
orders for the night given by him, the proved neglect of which 
would have brought a very heavy punishment upon the officer of 
the watch. In weighing the admiral's words, therefore, allow- 
ance may be made for a sense of personal responsibility for the 
finding of the court; but the letter, which was addressed to 
the First Lord, contains expressions that are most Avorthy of 
attention, not only because illustrative of Nelson's temperament 
and mode of thought, but also for a point of view too rarely 
taken in the modern practice, which has grown up in peace. 

My dear Lord, — Give me leave to recommend Captain Layman 
to your kind protection ; for, notwithstanding the Com't Martial has 
thought him deserving of censure for his running in with the land, 
yet, my Lord, allow me to say, that Captain Layman's misfortune 
was, perhaps, conceiving other people's abilities were equal to his 
own, w^hich, indeed, very few people's are. 

1 March 9th. 



VINDICATIONS OF HIS COURSE 643 

I own myself one of those who do not fear the shore, for hardly any 
great things are done in a small ship by a man that is ; therefore, I 
make very great allowances for him. Indeed, his station was intended 
never to be from the shore hi the straits : and if he did not every day 
risk his sloop, he would be useless upon that station. Captain Lay- 
man has served with me in three ships, and I am well acquainted with 
his bravery, zeal, judgment, and activity; nor do I rec/ret the loss of the 
Raven compared to the value of Captain Layman s sermces, ivhich are 
a national loss.^ 

You must, my dear Lord, forgive the warmth which I express for 
Captain Layman ; but he is in adversity, and, therefore, has the more 
claim to my attention and regard. If I had been censured every time 
I have run my ship, or fleets under my command, into great danger, 
I should long ago have been out of the Service, and never in the 
House of Peers. 

I am, my dear Lord, most faithfully, yom- obedient servant, 

Nelson and Bronte. 

It is something to meet with the clear recognition that a 
man may be of more value than a ship. As Clarendon said, 
it is not all of an officer's duty to bring his ship safe home 
again. 

On the voyage back from Alexandria he had busied himself 
with vindications of his course in going there, manifesting 
again that over-sensitiveness to the judgment of others, which 
contrasts so singularly with his high resolve and self-depen- 
dence when assuming the greatest responsibilities. To Ball, 
to the Admiralty, and to the First Lord privately, he sent 
explanations of his action, accompanied by a summary of his 
reasons. As the latter have been given, one by one, as each 
step was taken, it is not necessary here to say more than that, 
in the author's judgment, each successive movement w^as made 
upon good grounds, and rightly timed. This is true, although 
Nelson was entirely misled as to Bonaparte's object. The 
ruse of the latter, as put into effect by Villeneuve, not only 
deceived the British admiral, but, in its issue, confounded the 
French. The critical moment of decision, for the whole fruit- 
less campaign, was when Nelson determined to go first off 
Messina, then to the Morea, and finally to Egypt upon the 
inference that by this time one of three things must have hap- 
pened. Either (1) he must have met the French fleet, person- 
1 Author's italics. 



644 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ally or by his lookouts, or (2) it had returned to Toulon, or 
(3) it had gone on to Egypt. The first being eliminated, the 
choice he made between the others, wide as was the flight for 
which it called, was perfectly accurate. It is difficult to know 
which most to admire, — the sagacity which divined the actual, 
though not the intended, movements of the enemy, the fiery 
eagerness which gave assurance of a fierce and decisive battle, 
or the great self-restraint which, in all his fever of impatience, 
withheld him from precipitating action before every means of 
information was exhausted. There will be occasion to note 
again the same traits in the yet sharper trial he was soon to 
undergo. 

His conclusion upon the whole matter, therefore, though 
erroneous as to the fact, may be accepted as entirely justified 
by all the indications ; and it must be added that, with the 
dispositions he took, nothing could have saved the French fleet 
but its prompt retreat to Toulon. " Had they not been crip- 
pled," he wrote Davison, "nothing could have hindered our 
meeting them on January 21st, off the south end of Sardinia." 
"I have not the smallest doubt," he concluded his letter to the 
Admiralty, ''but that the destination of the French armament 
which left the coast of France on the 18th of January, was 
Alexandria ; and, under all the circumstances which I have 
stated, I trust their Lordships will approve my having gone to 
Egypt in search of the French fleet." There was, however, 
no occasion for him to be forward in suggesting the sacrifice 
of himself, as he did to Melville. "At this moment of sorrow 
I still feel that I have acted right. The result of my inquiries 
at Coron and Alexandria confirm me in my former opinion ; 
and therefore, my Lord, if my obstinacy or ignorance is so 
gross, T should be the first to recommend your superseding me." 
It may be noted here that Nelson never realized — he did not 
live long enough to realize — how thoroughly Bonaparte had 
learned from Egypt his lesson as to the control of the sea by 
sea-power, and what it meant to a maritime expedition which 
left it out of the account. To the end of his reign, and in the 
height of his sway, he made no serious attempt to occupy Sar- 
dinia or even Sicily, narrow as was the water separating the 
latter from Naples, become practically a French state, over 
which his brother and brother-in-law reigned for six years. 



VILLENEUVE STARTS AGAIN 645 

Nelson to the last made light of the difficulties of which 
Bonaparte had had bitter experience. " France," he wrote to 
the Secretary for War, " will have both Sardinia and Sicily 
very soon, if we do not prevent it, and Egypt besides." " We 
know," he said in a letter to Ball, " there would be no difficulty 
for single polaccas to sail from the shores of Italy with 300 or 
400 men in each, (single ships ;) and that, in the northerly 
winds, they would have a fair chance of not being seen, and 
even if seen, not to be overtaken by the Russian ships. Thus, 
20,000 men would be fixed again in Egypt, with the whole 
people in their favour. Who would turn them out ? " 

Nelson left the Gulf of Palmas as soon as the wind served, 
which was on the 9th of March. It was necessary to revictual ; 
but, as the time of the storeships' arrival was uncertain, he 
thought best to make a round off Toulon and Barcelona, to 
renew the impression of the French that his fleet was to the 
westward. This intention he carried out, " showing myself," 
to use his own words, "off Barcelona and the coast of Spain, 
and the islands of Majorca and Minorca, until the 21st of 
March." "I shall, if possible," he wrote to a captain on 
detached service, '' make my appearance off Barcelona, in order 
to induce the enemy to believe that I am fixed upon the coast 
of Spain, when I have every reason to believe they will put to 
sea, as I am told the troops are still embarked. From Barce- 
lona I shall proceed direct to Rendezvous 98." ^ Accordingly, 
on the 26th of March he anchored at Palmas, and began at once 
to clear the transports. "By the report of the Fleet Captain, 
I trust [it will be evident that] it could not with propriety be 
longer deferred." Still satisfied that the French were bound 
to Egypt, he would here be close to their necessary route, and 
with a look-out ship thirty miles to the westward felt assured 
they would not escape him. Four days after he anchored, 
Villeneuve started on his second venture, and thinking, as 
Nelson had plotted, that the British fleet was off Cape San 
Sebastian, he again shaped his course to pass east of the 
Balearics, between them and Sardinia. The news of his sail- 
ing reached Nelson five days later, on April 4th, at 10 a. m. 
He had left Palmas the morning before, and was then twenty 
miles west of it, beating against a head wind. The weary 
1 Apparently Gulf of Palmas. 



646 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

work of doubt, inference, and speculation was about to begin 
once more, and to be protracted for over three months. 

In the present gigantic combination of Napoleon, the Brest 
squadron, as well as those of Rochefort and Toulon, was to go 
to the West Indies, whence the three should return in mass to 
the English Channel, to the number of thirty-five French 
ships-of-the-line. To these it was hoped to add a number of 
Spanish ships, from Cartagena and Cadiz. If the movements 
were successful, this great force would overpower, or hold in 
check, the British Channel Fleet, and secure control of the 
Straits of Dover long enough for the army to cross. It is with 
the Toulon squadron that we are immediately concerned, as 
it alone for the present touches the fortunes of Nelson. 
Villeneuve's orders were to make the best of his way to the 
Straits of Gibraltar, evading the British fleet, but calling off 
Cartagena, to pick up any Spanish ships there that might be 
perfectly ready to join him. He was not, however, to delay 
for them on any account, but to push on at once to Cadiz. 
This port he was not to enter, but to anchor outside, and there 
be joined by the " Aigle," the ship that had so long worried 
Nelson, and also by six or eight Spanish ships believed to be 
ready. As soon as these came out, he was to sail with all 
speed for Martinique, and there wait forty days for the Brest 
squadron, if the latter, whose admiral was to be commander- 
in-chief of the allied fleets, did not appear sooner. Villeneuve 
had other contingent instructions, which became inoperative 
through the persistent pursuit of Nelson. 

The French fleet sailed during the night of March 30, with 
a light northeast wind, and steered a course approaching due 
south, in accordance with Villeneuve's plan of going east of 
Minorca. The British lookout frigates, '' Active " and " Phoebe," 
saw it at eight o'clock the next morning, and kept company 
with its slow progress till eight i\ m., when, being then sixty 
miles south by west, true, from Toulon, the '^Phoebe" was 
sent off to Nelson. During the day the wind shifted for a 
time to the northwest. The French then hauled up to south- 
west, and were heading so when darkness concealed them from 
the British frigates, which were not near enough for night ol> 
servations. After the ''Phcebe's" departure, the "Active" 
continued to steer as the enemy had been doing when last 



STRATEGIC DECISIONS 647 

seen, but at daybreak they were no longer in sight. Just 
what Villeneuve did that night does not appear; but no vessel 
of Nelson's knew anything more about him till April 18th, 
when information was received from a chance passer that he 
had been seen on the 7th off Cape de Gata, on the coast of 
Spain, with a fresh easterly wind steering to the westward. 

Villeneuve doubtless had used the night's breeze, which 
was fresh, to fetch a long circuit, throw off the " Active," and 
resume his course to the southward. It was not till next day, 
April 1st, that he spoke a neutral, which had seen Nelson near 
Palmas. Undeceived thus as to the British being off Cape 
San Sebastian, and the wind having then come again easterly, 
the French admiral kept away at once to the Avestward, passed 
north of the Balearic Islands, and on the 6th appeared off 
Cartagena. The Spanish ships there refusing to join him, he 
pressed on, went by Gibraltar on the 8th, and on the 9th an- 
chored off Cadiz, whence he drove away Orde's squadron. 
The " Aigle," with six Spanish ships, joined at once, and that 
night the combined force, eighteen ships-of-the-line, sailed 
for Martinique, where it arrived on the ]4th of May. By 
Villeneuve's instructions it was to remain in the West Indies 
till the 2od of Juno. 

When the captain of the '' Active " found he had lost sight 
of the French, he kept away for Nelson's rendezvous, and 
joined him at 2 p. m of April 4th, five or six hours after the 
"Phoebe." Prepossessed with the opinion that Naples, Sicily, 
or Egypt was the enemy's aim, an opinion which the frigate's 
news tended to confirm. Nelson at once took the fleet midway 
between Sardinia and the Barbary coast, spreading lookouts 
on either side. Thus, without yielding ground to leeward, he 
covered all avenues leading to the eastward. He summed up 
his purpose in words which showed an entire grasp of the 
essentials of his perplexing situation. " I shall neither go to 
the eastward of Sicily, or to the westward of Sardinia, until 
I know something positive." Amid the diverse objects de- 
manding his care, this choice of the strategic position was 
perfectly correct; but as day followed day without tidings, 
the distress of uncertainty, and the strain of adhering to his 
resolve not to move without information to guide him, be- 
came almost unbearable — a condition not hard to be realized 



648 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

by those who have known, in suspense, the overpowering im- 
pulse to do something, little matter what. It is an interest- 
ing illustration of the administrative difficulties of the fleet, 
that three supply-ships joined him on the 5th of April, and 
their stores were transferred at sea while momentarily ex- 
pecting the enemy's appearance ; one at least being com- 
pletely discharged by the night of the 6th 

On this date, Nelson, having waited forty-eight hours to 
windward of Sicily, decided to fall back on Palermo ; reckon- 
ing that if any attempt had been made upon Naples or Sicily, 
he should there hear of it. The lookouts which were scattered 
in all directions were ordered to join him there, and a frigate 
was sent to Naples. On the 9th and 10th he was off Palerino, 
and, though he got no word of the French, received two pieces 
of news from which his quick perceptions jumped to the con- 
clusion that he had been deceived, and that the enemy had 
gone west. "April 10, 7 a.m. Hallowell is just arrived 
from Palermo. He brings accounts that the great Expedition 
is sailed,^ and that seven Russian sail-of-the-line are expected 
in the Mediterranean; therefore I may suppose the French 
fleet are bound to the westward. I must do my best. God 
bless you. I am very, very miserable, but ever, my dear 
Ball," etc. 

A week more was to elapse before this dreadfully harassing 
surmise was converted into a certainty. On the 9th he started 
back from Palermo, intending to go towards Toulon, to make 
sure that the French had not returned again. Meeting a con- 
stant strong head wind, he was nine days getting again to the 
south of Sardinia, a distance of less than two hundred miles. 
There, on the 18th, the vessel was spoken which informed 
him that she had seen the French off Cape de Gata, three 
hundred miles to the westward, ten days before. "If this ac- 
count is true," he wrote to Elliot, " much mischief may be 
apprehended. It kills me, the very thought." Yet, now that 
the call for decision sounds, he knows no faltering, nor does 
he, as in hours of reaction, fret himself about the opinions of 
others. "I am going out of the Mediterranean," he says in 
farewell. " It may be thought that I have protected too well 
Sardinia, Naples, Sicily, the Morea, and Egypt ; but I feel I 
^ Froni England, 



STRATEGIC REASONINGS 649 

have done right, and am, therefore, easy about any fate which 
may await me for having missed the French fleet." 

The following day a vessel joined from Gibraltar, with 
certain information that the enemy had passed the Straits. 
Nelson had no need to ponder the next step. His resolve had 
been taken long before to follow to the Antipodes. He com- 
forted himself, mistakenly, that his watchfulness was the 
cause that the French had abandoned the attempt against 
Egypt in force. " Under the severe affliction which I feel at 
the escape of the French fleet out of the Mediterranean," he 
wrote the Admiralty, "I hope that their Lordships will not 
impute it to any want of due attention on my part ; but, on 
the contrary, that by my vigilance the enemy found it was im- 
possible to undertake any exj)edition in the Mediterranean." 
Mindful, also, that Bonaparte's great attempt of 1798 had 
depended upon the absence of the British fleet, he left a 
squadron of five frigates to cruise together to the windward 
of Sicily, lest the French even now might tiy to send trans- 
ports with troops to the eastward, under the protection of 
small armed vessels. 

The number of letters written on the 18th and 19th of April 
show how thoroughly his mind was prepared for contingencies. 
Despatched in all directions, they outline his own intended 
course, for the information of those who might have to co- 
operate, as well as that which he wished to be pursued by the 
officers under his orders. They are issued neat and complete, 
at one cast, and no other follows for a week. He surmises, 
from the fact of the Spanish ships accompanying the move- 
ment, that it is directed, not against the West ludies, but for 
either Ireland or Brest ; not a bad ''guess," which is all he 
would have claimed for it, for the West Indies were actually 
only a rallying-point on the roundabout road to the Channel 
prescribed by Napoleon. " Therefore," he wrote to the Ad- 
miralty, " if I receive no intelligence to do away my present 
belief, I shall proceed from Cape St. A'^ineent, and take my 
position fifty leagues west from Scillj^, approaching that island 
slowly, that I may not miss any vessels sent in search of the 
squadron with orders. My reason for this position is, that it 
is equally easy to get to either the fleet off Brest, or to go to 
Ireland, should the fleet be wanted at either station." The 



050 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

suitableness of this position to any emergency arising about 
the British Islands can be realized at a glance, bearing in 
mind that westerly winds prevail there. A copy of the letter 
was sent to Ireland, and another to the commander of the 
Channel fleet off Brest. " I have the pleasure to say," he 
concludes, " that I shall bring with me eleven as fine ships of 
war, as ably commanded, and in as perfect order, and in health, 
as ever went to sea." 

It will be interesting to support even Nelson's opinion of 
his own squadron by that of an unbiassed and competent wit- 
ness. Sir Edward Codrington was associated with it, still 
nearly entire, some three months later, after the return from 
the West Indies; the "Orion," which he commanded, being 
one of a detachment of eighteen ships-of-the-line sent off from 
Brest by Admiral Cornwallis. '-'Lord Nelson's squadron 
(of which we have now eight with us) seems to be in very 
high order indeed ; and although their ships do not look so 
handsome as objects, they look so very warlike and show 
such high condition, that when once I can think Orion fit to 
manoeuvre with them, I shall probably paint her in the same 
manner." There was, it would seem, a Nelson pattern for 
painting ships, as well as a "Nelson touch" in Orders for 
Battle. "I have been employed this week past," wrote Cap- 
tain Duff of the " Mars," "to paint the ship a la Nelson, which 
most of the fleet are doing." This, according to the admiral's 
biographers, was with two yellow streaks, but the portholes 
black, which gave the sides an appearance of being chequered. 

The frigate "Amazon," sent ahead with the letters, was 
ordered to go on to Lisbon, get all the news she could, and 
rejoin at Cape St. Vincent. She passed Gibraltar on the 
29th, and, getting decisive information just outside the Straits, 
held on there. It was not till the 6th that Nelson reached 
Gibraltar, where he anchored for only four hours. This gain 
of a week by a frigate, in traversing ground for which the 
fleet took seventeen days, may well be borne in mind by those 
unfamiliar with the delays attending concerted movements, 
that have to be timed with reference to the slowest units 
taking part in the combination. 

The days of chase, over which we have hurried in a few 
lines, passed for Nelson not only wearily, but in agony of 



H 



THE UNCERTAINTIES OF PURSUIT 651 



soul. Justified as his action was to his own mind, and as it 
must be by the dispassionate review of military criticism, he 
could not but be tormented by the thought of what might 
have been, and by his temper, which lacked equanimity and 
fretted uncontrollably to get alongside the enemy — to do the 
duty and to reap the glory that he rightly conceived to be 
his own. ''I am entirely adrift," he complained, "by my 
frigates losing sight of the French fleet so soon after their 
coming out of port." His purpose never faltered, nor did the 
light that led him grow dim. His action left nothing to be 
desired, but the chafing of his spirit approached fury. Lord 
Eadstock, writing from London to his son, says : " I met a 
person yesterday, who told me that he had seen a letter from 
Lord Nelson, concluding in these words : ' French fleet, 
French fleet, if I can but once get up with you, I '11 make you 
pay dearly for all that you have made me suffer ! ' Another 
told me that he had seen a letter from an ofiicer on board the 
Victory, describing his chief 'as almost raving with anger 
and vexation.' This," continues Radstock, who knew him 
very well, " I can readily credit, so much so, indeed, that I 
much fear that he will either undertake some desperate meas- 
ure to retrieve his ground, or, should not such an opportunity 
offer, that he will never suffer us to behold him more." 

Being in London, the writer just quoted was in close touch 
with the popular feeling of anxiety, a suspicion of which he 
could well imagine Nelson also had, and which added to his 
burden. "It is believed here," he says on the 21st of May, 
"that the combined fleet from Cadiz is bound to the West 
Indies. This is by no means improbable. . . . The City 
people are crying out against Sir J. 0.,^ and, as usual, are 
equally absurd and unjust. Some are so ridiculous as to say 
that he ought to have captured some of the Toulon squadron, 
whilst others, more moderate, think that he might at all 
events, have so crippled the enemy as to have checked the 
expedition.- You may readily guess that your chief is not 

1 Sir John Orde. 

^ Oide's squadron never exceeded six sliips-of-tlit?-line, while Villeueuve's 
numbered eleven without the Sjianiards. It will be seen further on that 
Nelson blamed Orde for not keei)ing track of the enemy's movements, and 
sending word to him at Gibraltar, and elsewhere, of the direction taken. As 



652 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

out of our thoughts at this critical moment. Should Provi- 
dence once more favour him, he will be considered our guar- 
dian angel ; but, on the other hand, should he unfortunately 
take a wrong scent, and the Toulon fleet attain their object, 
the hero of the 14th of February and of Aboukir will be — 
I will not say what, but the ingratitude of the world is but 
too well known on these occasions." 

A week before, on the 13th of May, the same officer had 
written : "Where are you all this time ?^ for that is a point 
justly agitating the whole country more than I can describe. 
I fear that your gallant and worthy chief will have much 
injustice done him on this occasion, for the cry is stirring 
up fast against him, and the loss of Jamaica would at once 
sink all his past services into oblivion. All I know for certain 
is that we ought never to judge rashly on these occasions, and 
never merely by the result. Lord Barham ^ told me this morn- 
ing that the Board had no tidings of your squadron. This is 
truly melancholy, for certainly no man's zeal and activity 
ever surpassed those of your chief. . . . The world is at once 
anxious for news and dreading its arrival." The Admiralty 
itself, perplexed and harassed by the hazards of the situation, 
were dissatisfied because they received no word from him, 
being ignorant of the weather conditions which had retarded 
even his frigates so far beyond the time of Villeneuve's arrival 
at Cadiz. Radstock, whose rank enabled him to see much of 
the members of the Board, drew shrewd inferences as to their 
feelings, though mistaken as to Nelson's action. " I fear 
that he has been so much soured by the appointment of Sir 
John Orde, that he has had the imprudence to vent his spleen 
on the Admiralty by a long, and, to the Board, painful silence. 
I am sure that they are out of humour with him, and I have 

far as the author's information goes, he agrees with this censure. To fight 
eleven ships with six coidd only be justified by extreme circumstances ; but 
to lose sight of them in spring weather infers even worse judgment than fight- 
ing would. It was of the first importance to learn the destination of so large 
a body, considering that the interests of Great Britain were threatened in 
directions so diverse as the Channel, the P]ast Indies, and the West Indies. 

^ Lord Radstoclc's son had been transferred before this from the "Vic- 
tory" to the " Hydra ;" but his father did not yet know the fact, and sup- 
posed him with Nelson. 

2 First Lord of the Admiralty, who had very lately succeeded Melville. 



DISTRESS AND UNCERTAINTIES 653 

my doubts whether they would risk much for him, were he 
to meet with any serious misfortune." 

Through such difficulties in front, and such clamor in the 
rear, Nelson pursued his steadfast way, in anguish of spirit, 
but constant still in mind. '•' I am not made to despair," he 
said to Melville, " what man can do shall be done. I have 
marked out for myself a decided line of conduct, and I shall 
follow it well up ; although I have now before me a letter 
from the physician of the fleet, enforcing my return to Eng- 
land before the hot months." " Broken-hearted as I am, at 
the escape of the Toulon fleet," he tells the governor of 
Gibraltar, '^ yet it cannot prevent my thinking of all the 
points intrusted to my care, amongst which Gibraltar stands 
prominent." " My good fortune seems flown away," he cries 
out to Ball. "I cannot get a fair wind, or even a side wind. 
Dead foul ! — dead foul ! But my mind is fully made up what 
to do when I leave the Straits, supposing there is no certain 
information of the enemy's destination. I believe this ill- 
luck will go near to kill me ; but as these are times for exer- 
tions, I must not be cast down, whatever I feel." A week 
later, on the 26th of April, he complains : " From the 9th I 
have been using every effort to get down the Mediterranean, 
but to this day we are very little advanced. From March 
26th, we have had nothing like a Levanter,^ except for the 
French fleet. I have never been one Aveek without one, 
until this very important moment. It has half killed me ; 
but fretting is of no use." On the 1st of May he wrote to 
the Admiralty, " I have as yet heard nothing of the enemy ; " 
beyond, of course, the fact of their having passed the Straits. 

On the 4th of May the squadron was off Tetuan, on the 
African coast, a little east of Gibraltar, and, as the wind was 
too foul for progress, Nelson, ever watchful over supplies, 
determined to stop for water and fresh beef, which the place 
afforded. There he was joined by the frigate " Decade " from 
Gibraltar, and for the first time, apparently, received a rumor 
that the allied fleets had gone to the West Indies. He com- 
plains, certainly not unreasonably, and apparently not un- 
justly, that Sir John Orde, who had seen the French arrive 
off Cadiz, had not dogged their track and ascertained their 
^ An east wind. 



654 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

route ; a feat certainly not beyond British seamanship and 
daring, under the management of a dozen men that could be 
named off-hand. " I believe my ill luck is to go on for a 
longer time, and I now much fear that Sir John Orde has not 
sent his small ships to watch the enemy's fleet, and ordered 
them to return to the Straits mouth, to give me information, 
that I might know how to direct my proceedings : for I can- 
not very properly run to the West Indies, without something 
beyond mere surmise ; and if I defer my departure, Jamaica 
may be lost. Indeed, as they have a month's start of me, I 
see no prospect of getting out time enough to prevent much 
mischief from being done. However, I shall take all matters 
into my most serious consideration, and shall do that which 
seemeth best under all circumstances." " I am like to have 
a West India trip," he wrote to Keats, one of his favorite 
captains ; "but that I don't mind, if I can but get at them." 

The wind hauling somewhat to the southward on the 5th, 
allowed the fleet to lay a course for Gibraltar. The operation 
of getting bullocks was stopped at once, and the ships weighed. 
In this brief stay, the water of the fleet had been completed 
and another transport cleared. Next day Gibraltar Avas 
reached. The wind, westerly still, though fair for this stretch, 
remained foul for beating out of the Straits against a current 
which ever sets to the eastward ; and many of the oflicers, 
presuming on a continuance of the weather that had so long 
baffled them, hurried their washing ashore. Nelson, however, 
keenly vigilant and with long experience, saw indications of a 
change. '• Off went a gun from the Victory, and up went the 
Blue Peter,^ whilst the Admiral paced the deck in a hurry, 
Avith anxious steps, and impatient of a moment's delay. The 
officers said, ' Here is one of Nelson's mad pranks.' But he 
was right." '^ The wind came fair, a condition with which the 
great admiral never trifled. Five hours after the anchors 
dropped they were again at the bows, and the fleet at last 
standing out of the Mediterranean ; the transj^orts in tow of 
the ships of war. Nelson's resolve Avas fast forming to go to 
the West Indies. In fact, at Tetuan, acting upon this possi- 
bility, he had given conditional orders to Bickerton to remain 

1 The signal flag for a vessel about to sail. 

2 Life of the Rev. A. J. Scott, p. 171. 



DECIDES TO CHASE TO THE WEST INDIES 655 

in commaiul of the Mediterranean squadron, assigning to that 
service half a dozen frigates and double that number of smaller 
cruisers, and had transferred to him all station papers neces- 
sary for his guidance, — a promptness of decision which suffi- 
ciently shows one of the chief secrets of his greatness. "If I 
fail," said he to Dr. Scott, " if they are not gone to the West 
Indies, I shall be blamed : to be burnt in effigy or West- 
minster Abbey is my alternative." Evidently he was not 
unmindful of the fickle breath of popular favor, whose fluc- 
tuations Radstock was noting. Dr. Scott, who Avitnessed his 
chief's bearing at this time, always considered that he never 
exhibited gi-eater magnanimity than in this resolution, which 
Jurien de la Graviere also has called one of his finest in- 
spirations. 

Great, indeed, was his promptitude, alike in decision and in 
act; but he was no less great in his delays, in the curb he 
placed on his natural impetuosity. " God only knows, my 
dear friend," he wrote at this moment to Davison, "what I 
have suffered by not getting at the enemy's fleet ; " but, in all 
his impatience, he would not start on that long voyage until 
he had exhausted every possibility of further enlightenment. 
" Perseverance and patience," he said, " may do much ; " but 
he did not separate the one from the other, in deed or in word. 
Circumspection was in him as marked a trait as ardor. " I 
was in great hopes," he wrote the Admiralty, " that some of 
Sir John Orde's frigates would have arrived at Gibraltar, from 
watching the destination of the enemy, from whom I should 
have derived information of the route the enemy had taken, 
but none had arrived." Up to April 27th nothing had been 
heard of them at Lisbon. " I am now pushing off Cape St. 
Vincent, and hope that is the station to which Sir John Orde 
may have directed his frigates to return from watching the 
route of the enemy. If nothing is heard there, I shall prob- 
ably think the rumours which are spread are true, that their 
destination is the West Indies, and in that case think it my 
duty to follow them." " I am as much in the dark as ever," 
he wrote on the same date. May 7th, to Nepean, one of the 
puisne lords. " If I hear nothing, I shall proceed to the 
West Indies," 

The wind continued fair for nearly forty-eight hours, when 



656 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

it again became westerly ; but the fleet was now in the 
Atlantic. On the 9th of May the "Amazon" rejoined, bring- 
ing a letter from another ship of war, which enclosed a report 
gathered from an American brig that had left Cadiz on the 
2d. According to this, while there were in Cadiz diverse 
rumors as to the destination of the allied fleets, the one most 
generally accepted Avas that they were bound to the West 
Indies. That night the fleet anchored in Lagos Bay, to the 
eastward of Cape St. Viiicent, and the unending work of dis- 
charging transports Avas again resumed. Nelson, shortly 
before leaving Gibraltar, had received official notification that 
a convoy carrying five thousand troops was on its way to the 
Mediterranean, and would depend upon him for protection. 
He felt it necessary to await this in his present position, and 
he utilized the time by preparing for a very long chase. 

At Lagos, Eear-Admiral Campbell of the Portuguese Navy, 
who had served Avith the British in the Mediterranean six 
years before, visited the '' Victory," and certain intelligence 
that A^'illeneuve Avas gone to the West Indies Avas by him 
given to Nelson. The latter had noAV all the confirmation 
needed, by such an one as he, to decide upon his line of 
action. " My lot is cast, my dear Ball, and I am going to the 
West Indies, where, although I am late, yet chance may have 
given them a bad passage, and me a good one : I must hope 
the best." "Disappointment has worn me to a skeleton," 
he Avrites to his late junior in the Mediterranean, Campbell, 
"and I am in good truth, very, very far from Avell." "If T 
had not been in pursuit of the enemy's fleet, I should have 
been at this moment in England, but my health, or even my 
life, must not come into consideration at this important crisis ; 
for, however I may be called unfortunate, it never shall be 
said that I have been neglectful of my duty, or spared myself." 
"It Avill not be supposed I am on a party of pleasure," he 
Avrote to the Secretary of the Admiralty, "running after 
eighteen sail of the line Avith ten, and that to the West In- 
dies ; " but, he summed up his feelings to Davison, "Salt 
beef and the French fleet, is far preferable to roast beef and 
champagne without them." 

On the 10th of May only Avas his purpose finally and abso- 
lutely formed, for on that day he sent a sloop to Barbadoes, 



PASSAGE TO BARBADOES 657 

his intended point of arrival, to announce his coming ; request- 
ing that an embargo might be laid at once on all vessels in 
port, to prevent the news reaching the enemy at Martinique 
or elsewhere. In the morning of the 11th the fleet weighed, 
and at 4 p. m. the expedition from England arrived. It was 
accompanied by two ships-of-the-line, to which Nelson joined 
a third, the " Royal Sovereign," which sailed so badly, fi'om 
the state of her bottom, that she would retard a movement 
already too long delayed. At seven that evening the fleet was 
under full sail for the West Indies. 

The voyage across was uneventful ; the ships, as customary 
for this passage, stood to the southward and westward into the 
trade winds, under whose steady impulse they advanced at a 
daily average speed of one hundred and thirty-five miles, or 
between five and six miles an hour. This rate, however, was 
a mean between considerable extremes, — a rate of nine miles 
being at times attained. The slackest Avinds, which brought 
down the average, are found before reaching the trades, and 
Nelson utilized this period to transmit to the fleet his general 
plan for action, in case he found the allies at sea. The manner 
in which this was conveyed to the individual ships is an 
interesting incident. The speed of the fleet is necessarily that 
of its slowest member ; the faster ships, therefore, have con- 
tinually a reserve, which they may at any moment bring into 
play. The orders being prepared, a frigate captain was 
called on board the " Victory " and received them. Return- 
ing to his own vessel, he made all sail until on the bow ^ of 
one of the ships-of-the-line. Deadening the way of the frigate, 
a boat was dropped in the water and had only to pull along- 
side the other vessel as it came up. The frigate remained 
slowed until passed, and the boat, having delivered its letter, 
came easily alongside again, — the whole operation being thus 
conducted with the least expenditure of time and exertion.^ 

There was in the fleet one ship that had been steadily in 
commission since 1801, and was now in very shaky condition. 
This was the " Superb," seventy-four. She had only been 
kept out by the extreme exertions of her commander, Keats, 
one of the most distinguished captains of the day, and, he had 

^ Ahead, but a little to one side. 
2 Phillimore's Last of Nelson's Captains. 
42 



658 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

entreated that he shoukl not be sent away now, when the 
moment of battle seemed near. By a singular irony of fate, 
this zealous insistence caused him to miss Trafalgar, at which 
the "E-oyal Sovereign," that parted at Lagos, Avas present, 
repaired and recoj^pered, — a new ship. Keats, whose energy 
and readiness made him a great favorite with Nelson, obtained 
permission not to stop when other ships did, but always to 
carry a press of sail ; and he lashed his studdingsail booms to 
the yards, as the constant direction of the trade-winds allows 
them to be carried steadily. Notwithstanding all that could 
be done, the " Superb " seems to have set the pace, and slower 
than could have been wished ; which drew from Nelson's cus- 
tomary kindly thoughtfulness a few lines too characteristic to 
be omitted. 

My dear Keats, — I am fearful that you may think that the 
Superb does not go so fast as I could wish. However that may be, 
(for if we all went ten knots, I should not think it fast enough,) yet 
I would have you be assured that I know and feel that the Superb 
does all which is possible for a ship to accomplish ; and I desire that 
you will not fret upon the occasion. . . . Whatever may happen, 
believe me ever, my dear Keats, your most obliged and sincei-e" friend. 

Nelson and Bronte. 

A week seems to have elapsed before he could get a suitable 
opportunity for sending this, and he then, on the 27th of May, 
added : " Our passage, although not very quick, has been far 
from a bad one ; " and he thought that they would gain four- 
teen days upon the allies. The actual gain was ten, the latter 
being thirty-four days from Cadiz to Martinique, the British 
twenty-four to Barbadoes. The enemy were therefore three 
weeks in the West Indies before Nelson arrived; but in that 
time they neither accomplished nor undertook anything but 
the recapture of Diamond Rock, a precipitous islet off the 
south end of Martinique, which the British had held for some 
time, to the great annoyance of the main island. 

Reaching Barbadoes on the afternoon of June 4th, Nelson 
found that the day before information had been received from 
General Brereton, commanding the troops at Santa Lucia, that 
the allied fleets had passed there, going south, during the 
night of May 28-29. The intelligence was so circumstantial 



MISLED BY FALSE INFORMATION 659 

that it compelled respect, coming from the quarter it did. 
"There is not a doubt in any of the Admirals' or Generals' 
minds," wrote Nelson to the Admiralty, in the despatch 
announcing his arrival, " but that Tobago and Trinidada are 
the enemy's objects." Nelson himself was sceptical, — the 
improbability seemed great to his sound military perceptions; 
but, confident as he Avas in his own conclusions in dilemmas, 
his mind was too sane and well balanced to refuse direct and 
credible evidence. Summing up the situation with lamenta- 
tions, six weeks later, he said to Davison : " When I follow 
my own head, I am, in general, much more correct in my 
judgment, than following the opinion of others. I re- 
sisted the opinion of General Brereton's information till it 
would have been the height of presumption to have carried 
my disbelief further. I could not, in the face of generals 
and admirals, go N. W., when it was ajjparently clear that 
the enemy had gone south." His purpose had been not to 
anchor, but to pick up such ships-of-the-line as he found 
there, — two seventy-fours,^ as it turned out, — and to proceed 
with them to Martinique, which he naturally assumed to be 
the enemy's headquarters. As it was, receiving a pressing 
request from the commanding general at Barbadoes to let him 
accompany the fleet with two thousand troops, he anchored in 
Carlisle Bay at 5 p. m. At half-past nine the next morning he 
was again under way for Trinidad, Some curious misunder- 
standings maintained this mistaken impression as to the 
enemy's actions, until communication with Trinidad was had 
on the evening of June 7th. It was found then that no hostile 
force liad appeared, although the British fleet for a moment 
had been believed to be such. 

Nelson at once started north again. A report reached him 
that a second squadron, of fourteen French and Spanish ships 
from Ferrol, had arrived at Martinique. He said frankly that 
he thought this very doubtful, but added proudly : " Powerful 
as their force may be, they shall not with impunity make any 
great attacks. Mine is compact, theirs must be unwieldy, and 
although a very pretty fiddle, I don't believe that either 
Gravina or Villeneuve know how to play upon it." On the 
9th he for the first time got accurate information. An official 

1 The "Nottliuiiiberland " and the " Spartiate." 



660 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

letter from Dominica ^ announced that eighteen ships-of-the- 
line, Avith smaller vessels, had passed there on the 6th of 
. June. But for the false tidings which on the 4th had led 
him, first to pause, and then to take a wrong direction, Nelson 
argued, and not unjustly, that he would have overtaken them 
at this point, a bare hundred miles from Barbadoes, ."But 
for wrong information, I should have fought the battle on 
June 6th where Rodney fought his." The famous victory of 
the latter was immediately north of Dominica, by which name 
it is known in French naval history. "There would have 
been no occasion for opinions," wrote Nelson wrathf ully, as he 
thought of his long anxieties, and the narrow margin by which 
he failed, " had not General Brereton sent his damned intelli- 
gence from St. Lucia ; nor would I have received it to have 
acted by it, but that I was assured that his information was 
very correct. It has almost broke my heart, but I must not 
despair." It was hard to have borne so much, and then to 
miss success from such a cause. " Brereton's wrong informa- 
tion could not be doubted," he told his intimates, " and by 
following it, I lost the opportunity of fighting the enemy." 
" What a race I have run after these fellows ; but God is just, 
and I may be repaid for all my moments of anxiety." 

When Villeneuve, with his ill-trained and sickly ^ fleet, left 
Martinique on the 4th of June, he had, of course, no knowl- 
edge of Nelson's approach. Nearly up to that date it was not 
known, even in London, where the latter had gone. A frigate 
had reached the French admiral on the 29th of May, with 
orders from Napoleon to make some attempts against the 
British islands during the time he was awaiting the Brest 
squadron. For this reason he sailed, and just outside the 
harbor was joined by two ships from France, raising his force 
to twenty of the line. He steered north, intending to gain to 
windward, and thence return upon Barbadoes, his first pro- 
posed conquest. On the 8th of June, off Antigua, were cap- 
tured fourteen British merchant-ships, which had imprudently 
put to sea from that island. From these Villeneuve got a 
report that Nelson had arrived with fourteen ships-of-the-line, 

^ The island immediately north of Martinique. 

2 "The French and Spaniards landed 1,000 sick when they arrived at Mar- 
tinico, and buried full that number during their stay." Nicolas, vol. vi. p. 480. 



DECISION TO RETURN TO EUROPE 661 

to which his imagination added five he believed to be at Bar- 
badoes. He decided at once to return to Europe, abandoning 
all his projects against the British possessions. Transferring 
hastily a number of troops to frigates, as garrisons for the 
French islands, he sailed the next day for the northward to 
gain the westerly winds which prevail in the higher latitudes. 
Of the forty days he was to remain in the West Indies — re- 
duced to thirty -five by subsequent instructions — only twenty- 
six had passed. Whatever else might result in the future, 
Nelson was justified in claiming that his pursuit, effected 
under such discouragements, had driven the enemy out of the 
West Indies, saved the islands, and, as he added, two hundred 
sail of sugar ships. Only extreme imprudence, he fairly 
maintained, was responsible for the loss of the fourteen from 
Antigua. 

Nelson himself was off Antigua on the 12th of June, exactly 
one week after he left Barbadoes. There he received all the 
information that has just been mentioned as to the enemy's 
movements. A rapid decision was necessary, if he might hope 
yet to overtake his fortune, and to baffle finally the objects of 
the allies, whatever they might be. '' I must be satisfied they 
have bent their course for Europe before I push after them, 
which will be to the Straits' mouth ; " but later in the same 
day he has learned that they were standing to the northward 
when lasb seen, and had sent back their troops to Guadaloupe, 
therefore, "I hope to sail in the morning after them for the 
Straits' mouth." That night the troops were landed, and a 
brig of war, the " Curieux," was despatched to England with 
word of his intentions. At the same time, while believing 
the allies were bound back to the Mediterranean, he recognized 
that it was possible they might be going farther north, to one 
of the Biscay ports, and consequently took measures to notify 
the commanding officer ofE Eerrolto be on his guard. The frigate 
charged with this communication was kept with the fleet until 
the 19th, by which time he had obtained at sea additional and 
more precise knowledge of Villeneuve's direction. This im- 
portant warning was duly received, and in advance of the 
enemy's appearance, by the admiral for whom it was intended. 

In taking this second decision, to abandon the West Indies 
once more to themselves, as a month before he had abandoned 



662 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the Mediterranean, Nelson had to rely only upon his own 
natural sagacity and practised judgment. "I hear all, and 
even feel obliged, for all is meant as kindness to me, that I 
should get at them. In this diversity of opinions I may as 
well follow my own, which is, that the Spaniards are gone to 
the Havannah, and that the French will either stand for Cadiz 
or Toulon — I feel most inclined to the latter place ; and then 
they may fancy that they will get to Egypt without any inter- 
ruption." " So far from being infallible, like the Pope, I believe 
my opinions to be ver}^ fallible, and therefore I may be mis- 
taken that the enemy's fleet has gone to Europe ; but I cannot 
bring myself to think otherwise, notwithstanding the variety 
of opinions which, different people of good judgment form." 

Still, as before, his judgments, if rapid, are not precipitate. 
Though characterized by even more of insight than of reason- 
ing, no conditions are left out of sight, nor, as he declared, 
■was a deaf ear turned to any suggestion. Upon the whole, 
one is more struck by the accuracy of the inferences than by 
the antecedent processes as summarized by himself ; yet the 
weight of evidence will be found on the side he espouses. 
Erroneous in particulars, the general conclusions upon which 
he bases his future course are justified, not only by the results 
now known to us, but to impartial review of their probability 
at the moment. Most impressive of all, however, is the 
strength of conviction, which lifts him from the plane of 
doubt, where unaided reason alone would leave him, to that of 
unhesitating action, incapable of looking backward. In the 
most complete presentation of all his views, the one he wished 
brought before the Prime Minister, if his conduct on this 
momentous occasion were called in question, he ends thus : 
'' My opinion is firm as a rock, that some cause, orders, or 
inahility to perform any service in these seas, has made them 
resolve to proceed direct for Europe, sending the Spanish ships 
to the Havannah." It is such conviction, in which opinion 
rather possesses a man than is possessed by him, that exalts 
genius above talent, and imbues faith with a power which 
reason has not in her gift. 

There were among his conclusions certain ones which placed 
Nelson's mind, however fretted by disappointment, at ease 
concerning any futxire harm the enemy might be able to do. 



HIS MILITARY RPiASONINGS 663 

Another wreath of hiurel, which seemed almost within his 
grasp, liad indeed evaded liim, and no man felt more keenly 
such a loss ; but he was reasonably sure that, if Villeneuve 
were gone to Europe, he could not outstrip pursuit by long 
enough to do much harm. The harassing fear, which he had 
borne through the long beat down the Mediterranean and the 
retarded voyage to Martinique, had now disappeared. Going 
out he had gained ten days upon the allies ; they had only five 
days' start of him in the return. He recognized, moreover, 
tlie great significance of their inactivity during the three weeks 
they had the Windward Islands, if not all the West Indies, 
defenceless before them. " If they were not able to make an 
attack for three weeks after their arrival, they could not hope 
for greater success after our means of resistance increased, and 
their means of offence were diminished." If this considera- 
tion, on the one hand, showed the improbability of their pro- 
ceeding against Jamaica, after Nelson's coming, when they 
had not ventured before, it gave also an inkling of their prob- 
able efficiency for immediate action in Europe. " They will 
not give me credit for quitting the W^est Indies for a month to 
come;" therefore it was unlikely that they would thi«k it 
necessary to proceed at once upon their next enterprise, after 
reaching port. "I must not despair of getting up with them 
before they enter the Straits," he writes Elliot. "At least, 
they will have no time to carry any of their future plans into 
execution, and do harm to any of the countries under my 
charge." If his thirst for glory was unslaked, his fears of 
disaster had disappeared. 

Villeneuve, guided by instructions recently received from 
Napoleon, to meet the case of the Brest squadron uot getting 
away, had gone actually for Ferrol, where he was to join a 
squadron of five French and nine Spanish ships, which would 
raise his own force to thirty-four of the line ; but Nelson, 
unable to know this, argued correctly that, in the uncertainty, 
he must leave this chance to the Biscay ships, and that for 
himself the Mediterranean possessed the first claim. At noon 
of June loth, nine days after reaching Barbadoes, he got 
away from Antigua. The necessity for gaining the westerly 
winds made his course for some time the same as that of 
Villeneuve, and left him not without hopes that he might yet 



664 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

fall in with the allies, especially if, as he thoiight, they were 
destined to the Straits. On the 17th an American schooner 
was spoken, which had seen the combined squadron two days be- 
fore, steering also to the northward. This report, wrote Nelson 
to the Admiralty, " can leave me no room to doubt but that I am 
hard upon the heels of the enemy's fleet-. I think we cannot 
be more than eighty leagues from them at this moment, and 
by carrying every sail, and using my utmost efforts, I shall 
hope to close with them before they get to either Cadiz or 
Toulon." The news was sent ahead by two vessels, which 
parted from the fleet on the 19th of June, — one for Gibraltar, 
with despatches and letters for the admiral and ministers in 
the Mediterranean ; one for Lisbon, whence this important 
intelligence would be forwarded to England and to the com- 
manding officer off Ferrol. Still believing them bound for 
the Straits, Nelson expressed in the fleet the opinion that they 
would keep well to the southward of the Azores, so as not to 
be seen by British cruisers centred there. In this he was 
mistaken, as he was in their final destination ; both fleets 
sighted the islands, — the French on the 30th of June to the 
northward of the group, while the British passed through it on 
the 8th of July. He admitted, however, that he was doubt- 
ful in the matter. " It is very uncertain whether they will go 
to Ferrol or Cadiz ; " and nothing can indicate more clearly his 
perplexity, and his sense of the urgency of the case, than his 
parting on the same day with two of the four small cruisers 
he had with him, in order to insure that Ferrol as well as 
Gibraltar should have prompt warning. 

It was at about this time that Nelson expressed, to one or 
more of his captains, his views as to what he had so far 
effected, what he had proposed to do if he had met the hostile 
fleets, and what his future course would be if they were yet 
found. " I am thankful that the enemy have been driven 
from the West India Islands with so little loss to our Country. 
I had made up my mind to great sacrifices; for I had deter- 
mined, notwithstanding his vast superiority, to stop his career, 
and to put it out of his power to do any further mischief. Yet 
do not imagine I am one of those hot brained people, who 
fight at an immense disadvantage, without an adequate object} 
1 Author's italics. 



HIS MILITARY REASONINGS 665 

My object is partly gained," that is, the allies had been forced 
out of the West Indies. " If we meet them, we shall find them 
not less than eighteen, I rather think twenty sail of the line, 
and therefore do not be surprised if I should not fall on them 
immediately : ive won't jpart witliout a battle} I think they 
will be glad to leave me alone, if I will let them alone ; 
which I will do, either till we approach, the shores of Europe, 
or they give me an advantage too tempting to be resisted." 

It is rare to find so much sagacious appreciation of con- 
ditions, combined with so much exalted resolution and sound 
discretion, as in this compact utterance. Among the external 
interests of Great Britain, the West Indies were the greatest. 
They were critically threatened by the force he was pursuing ; 
therefore at all costs that force should be so disabled, that it 
could do nothing effective against the defences with which the 
scattered islands were provided. For this end he was prepared 
to risk the destruction of his squadron. The West Indies 
were now delivered ; but the enemy's force remained, and 
other British interests. Three mouths before, he had said, " I 
had rather see half my squadron burnt than risk what the 
French fleet may do in the Mediterranean." In the same 
spirit he now repeats : " Though we are but eleven to eigh- 
teen or twenty, we won't part without a battle." Why 
fight such odds ? He himself has told us a little later. " By 
the time the enemy has beat our fleet soundly, they will do us 
no harm this year." Granting this conclusion, — the reason- 
ableness of which was substantiated at Trafalgar, — it cannot 
be denied that the sacrifice would be justified, the enemy's 
combinations being disconcerted. Yet there shall be no head- 
long, reckless attack. "I will leave them alone till they offer 
me an opportunity too tempting to be resisted," — that speaks 
for itself, — or, " until we approach the shores of Europe," 
when the matter can no longer be deferred, and the twenty 
ships must be taken out of Napoleon's hosts, even though 
eleven be destroyed to effect this. The preparedness of mind 
is to be noted, and yet more the firmness of the conviction, in 
the strength of which alone such deeds are done. It is the 
man of faith who is ever the man of works. 

Singularly enough, his plans were quickly to receive the 
1 Author's italics. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



best of illustrations by the failure of contrary methods. 
Scarcely a month later fifteen British ships, under another 
admiral, met these twenty, which Nelson, with eleven now 
sought in vain. They did not part without a battle, but they 
did part without a decisive battle ; they were not kept in 
sight afterwards; they joined and were incorporated with 
Napoleon's great armada ; they had further wide opportuni- 
ties of mischief ; and there followed for the people of Great 
Britain a period of bitter suspense and wide-spread panic. 
" What a game had Villeneuve to play ! " said Napoleon of 
those moments. " Does not the thought of the possibilities 
remaining to Villeneuve," wrote Lord Radstock of Calder's 
fruitless battle, " make your blood boil whe.nyou reflect on the 
never to be forgotten 22d of July ? Notwithstanding the 
inferiority of Lord Nelson's numbers," he says at the same 
time, with keen appreciation of the man he knew so well, 
" should he be so lucky as to fall in with the enemy, I have no 
doubt that he ivould never quit them ^ until he should have 
destroyed or taken some of the French ships ; and that he 
himself would seek the French admiral's ship, if possible, I 
would pledge my life on it." " There is such an universal 
bustle and cry about invasion, that no other subject will be 
listened to at present by those in power. I found London 
almost a desert, and no good news stirring to animate it ; on 
the contrary, the few faces I saw at the Admii-alty at once 
confirmed the truth of the report of the combined squadron 
having safely arrived at Ferrol." This was after Calder had 
met and fought them, and let them get out of his sight. 

Lord Minto, speaking of the same crisis, says : " There has 
been the greatest alarm ever known in the city of London, 
since the combined fleet [Villeneuve 's] sailed from Ferrol. 
If they had captured our homeward-bound convoys, it is said 
the India Company and half the city must have been bank- 
rupt." These gleams of the feelings of the times, reflected 
by two men in close contact with the popular apprehensions, 
show what Nelson was among British admirals to the men of 
his day, and why he was so. "Great and important as the 
victory is," wrote Minto, three months later, after the ncAVS 
of Trafalgar, " it is bought too dearly, even for our interest, 
^ Author's italics. 



DEPRESSION AND PERSEVERANCE 667 

by the death of Nelson. We shall want more victories yet, 
and to whom can we look for them ? The navy is certainly 
full of the bravest men, but they are mostly below the rank 
of admiral ; and brave as they almost all are, there was a sort 
of heroic cast about Nelson that I never saw in any other 
man, and which seems wanting to the achievement of imjoossi- 
hle things which became easy to him, and on which the main- 
tenance of our superiority at sea seems to depend against the 
growing navy of tlie enemy." " The clamour against poor 
Sir Kobert Calder is gaining ground daily," wrote Eadstock, 
condemnatory yet pitiful towards the admiral who had failed 
duly to utilize the opportunity Nelson then was seeking in 
vain, ''and there is a general cry against him from all quar- 
ters. Thus much one may venture to say, that had your old 
chief commanded our squadron, the enemy would have had but 
little room for lying or vapouring, as I have not a shadow 
of a doubt but that he would either have taken or destroyed 
the French admiral." 

But there was but one Nelson, and he meantime, faint yet 
pursuing, toiled fruitlessly on, bearing still the sickness of 
hope deferred and suspense protracted. "Midnight," he 
notes in his private diary of June 21st. " Nearly calm, saw 
three planks which I think came from the French fleet. Very 
miserable, which is very foolish." "We crawled thirty-three 
miles the last twenty-four hours," he enters on the 8th of 
July. " My only hope is, that the enemy's fleet are near us, 
and in the same situation. All night light breezes, standing 
to the eastward, to go to the northward of St. Michael's.-^ 
At times squally with rain." Amid these unavoidable delays, 
he was forecasting and preparing that no time should be lost 
when he reached the Straits and once more came within tlie 
range of intelligence. The light winds, when boats could pass 
without retarding the ships, were utilized in preparing let- 
ters to the officials at Gibraltar and Tangiers, to have ready 
the stores necessary for the fleet upon arrival. These papers 
were already on board the two frigates remaining with him, 
with the necessary instructions for their captains, so that they 
might part at any moment judged fitting, irrespective of 
weather conditions. Again he cautions the authorities to 
1 One of the easternmost of the Azores, 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



keep his approach a profound secret. No private letters for 
Gibraltar were permitted in the mail-bags, lest they should 
unwittingly betray counsel. The vessels were directed to 
rejoin him forty miles west of Cape Spartel, giving him thus 
time to decide upon his course before he reached Gibraltar ; 
for it was quite on the cards that he might lind it imperative 
to hurry north without anchoring. On the 13th of July, five 
hundred miles from Cape St. Vincent, one of these ships left 
him, probably the last to go. 

On the 18th of July, Cape Spartel was sighted. '' No French 
fleet," wrote the admiral in his diary, " nor any information 
about them : how sorrowful this makes me, but I cannot help 
myself!" "I am, my dear Mr. Marsden," he wrote to the 
Secretary of the Admiralty, "as completely miserable as my 
greatest enemy could wish me ; but I blame neither fortune or 
my own j udgment. Oh, General Brereton ! General Brereton ! " 
To his friend Davison he revealed yet more frankly the bitter- 
ness of his spirit, now that the last hope was dashed, and it was 
even possible that the mis-step of going to Trinidad had caused 
him to incur a further mistake, by leaving the allies in the 
West Indies. "■ But for General Brereton's damne'd information, 
Nelson," he said, half prophetically, "would have been, living 
or dead, the greatest man in his profession that England ever 
saw. Now alas ! I am nothing — ■ perhaps shall incur censure 
for misfortunes which may happen, and have happened." 

But if he himself were disappointed, and foreboded the dis- 
content of others, the greatness of what he had done Avas 
quickly apparent, and received due recognition from thought- 
ful men. "Either the distances between the different quar- 
ters of the globe are diminished," wrote Mr. Elliot from Naples, 
" or you have extended the powers of human action. After 
an unremitting cruise of two long years in the stormy Gulf of 
Lyons, to have proceeded without going into port to Alexan- 
dria, from Alexandria to the West Indies, from the West In- 
dies back again to Gibraltar; to have kept your ships afloat, 
your rigging standing, and your crews in health and spirits — 
is an effort such as never was realized in former times, nor, I 
doubt, will ever again be repeated by any other admiral. You 
have protected us for two long years, and you saved the West 
Indies by only a few days." Thus truly summarized, such 



I 



REGAINS THE STRAITS 



achievements are seen to "possess claims to admiration, not to 
be exceeded even by the glory of Trafalgar. 

Although no French fleet was visible, as Nelson approached 
the Straits, there were a half-dozen British ships-of-the-line, 
under the command of his old friend Collingwood, blockad- 
ing Cadiz. When Orde was driven off that station by Ville- 
neuve on the 9th of April, and retired upon Brest, he had already 
sent in an application to be relieved from a duty which he 
himself had sought, and had held for so short a time; alleging 
a bundle of grievances which show clearly enough the im- 
practicable touchiness of the man. His request was at once 
granted. Early in May, Collingwood was sent from England 
with eight sail-of-the-line for the West Indies ; but learning 
on the way that Nelson had gone thither, he detached to him 
two of his swiftest seventy-fours, and, with great good judg- 
ment, himself took position off Cadiz, where he covered the 
entrance of the Mediterranean, and effectually prevented any 
ships from either Cartagena or Ferrol concentrating in the 
neighborhood of the Straits. 

Nelson received word from some of his lookouts appointed 
to meet him here, that nothing had been heard of the allied 
squadrons. The anxiety which had never ceased to attend 
him was increased by this prolonged silence. He had no 
certainty that the enemy might not have doubled back, and 
gone to Jamaica. He would not stop now to exchange with 
Collingwood speculations about the enemy's course. " My 
dear Collingwood, I am, as you may suppose, miserable at not 
having fallen in with the enemy's fleet ; and I am almost 
increased in sorrow by not finding them [here]. The name 
of General Brereton will not soon be forgot. I must now 
only hope that the enemy have not tricked me, and gone to 
Jamaica ; but if the account,^ of which T send yon a copy, is 
correct, it is more than probable that they are either gone to 
the northward, or, if bound to the Mediterranean, not yet 
arrived." His surmise remains accurate. He then continues, 
with that delicate and respectful recognition of the position 
and ability of others, which won him so much love : " The 
moment the fleet is watered, and got some refreshments, of 

1 The report of the American schooner, which saw the allied fleet, June 
15th. 



670 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which, we are in great want, I shall come out and make you a 
visit ; not, my dear friend, to take your command from you, 
(for I may probably add mine to you,) but to consult how we 
can best serve our Country, by detaching a part of this large 
force." Circumstances prevented his neighborly intention 
from taking effect. A week later Nelson returned north with 
his squadron, and the friends did not meet until shortly before 
Trafalgar. 

In reply to Nelson's letter. Colling wood summed up his 
view of the situation as so far developed. ''I have always 
had an idea that Ireland alone was the object they had in 
view, and still believe that to be their ultimate destination — 
that they will now liberate the Ferrol squadron from Calder, 
make the round of the Bay,^ and, taking the Rochefort people 
with them, appear off Ushant — perhaps with thirty -four 
sail, there to be joined by twent}' more. Admiral Cornwallis 
collecting his out squadrons may have thirty and upwards. 
This appears to be a probable plan; for unless it is to 
bring their great fleets and armies to some point of ser- 
vice — some rash attempt at conquest — they have been only 
subjecting them to chance of loss, which I do not believe 
the Corsican would do, without the hope of an adequate 
reward." 

It is upon this letter, the sagacious and well-ordered infer- 
ences of which must be candidly admitted, that a claim for 
superiority of discernment over Nelson has been made for its 
writer. It must be remembered, however, not as a matter of 
invidious detraction from one man, but in simple justice to 
the other, whose insight and belief had taken form in such 
wonderful work, that Nelson also had fully believed that the 
enemy, if they left the Mediterranean, would proceed to 
Ireland ; and furtlier, and yet more particularly, Collingwood's 
views had been confirmed to him by the fact, as yet un- 
known to Nelson, that the Rochefort squadron, which sailed 
at the time Villeneuve first escaped in Jauuary, had since 
returned to Europe on the 26th of May. " The flight to the 
West Indies," Collingwood said, in a letter dated the day after 
the one just quoted, " was to take off our naval force, which 
is the great impediment to their undertaking. The Roche- 

1 Of Biscay. 



ADMIRAL COLLINGWOOD. 

From the painting by Henry Howard, at Greenwich Hospital. 



t 




COLLINGWOOD AND NELSON 671 

fort Squadron's return confirmed me." " I well know what 
your lordship's disappointment is," he wrote, with generous 
sympathy; "and I share the mortification of it. It would 
have been a happy day for England, could you have met 
them ; small as your force was, I trust it would have been 
found enough. This summer is big with events. Sincerely 
I wish your Lordship strength of body to go through — and 
to all others, yotir strength of ')nind.'" Testy even to petulance 
as these two great seamen were at times in small matters, 
when overwrought with their manifold anxieties, they no- 
where betray any egotistic concern as to the value attached by 
others to their respective speculations, the uncertainties of 
which none knew better than they, who had to act upon their 
conclusions. 

Meantime, at the very moment they were exchanging let- 
ters, pregnant movements were taking place, unknown to 
either. The brig "' Curieux," despatched to England by 
Nelson the night before he left Antigua, had fallen in with 
the allied squadrons, nine hundred miles north-northeast from 
Antigua, on the 19th of June — just a week after she sailed. 
Keeping company with them long enough to ascertain their 
course and approximate numbers, the captain then hastened 
on, anchoring in Plymouth on the 7th of July. " I am sorry," 
wrote Nelson when he heard of this meeting, "that Captain 
Bettesworth did not stand back and try to find us out;" but 
grateful as the word would have been to him, the captain was 
better advised to make for a fixed and certain destination. 
At daylight of the 9th the news was in the hands of the First 
Lord, who issued instant orders for the blockading squadrons 
oft" Eochefort and Eerrol to unite, and to take post one hun- 
dred miles west of Cape Finisterre. On the 19th of July Ad- 
miral Calder Avas in this position, with fifteen ships-of-the-line, 
and received through Lisbon the information of the French 
movements, which Nelson had forwarded thither an exact 
month before. On the 20th Nelson's fleet anchored at Gib- 
raltar, and he went ashore, " for the first time since the 16th 
of June, 1803." On the 22d Calder and Villeneuve met and 
fought. Two Spanish ships-of-the-line were captured, but the 
battle was otherwise indecisive. Calder hesitated to attack 
again, and on the 26th lost sight of the enemy, who, on the 



672 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

28tli, put into Vigo Bay ; whence, by a lucky slant of wind, 
they reached Ferrol on the first of August with fifteen ships, 
having left three in Vigo. Calder sent five of his fleet to 
resume the blockade of Rochefort, and himself with nine 
joined Coruwallis off Brest, raising the force there to twenty- 
six. This junction was made August 14th. The next day 
appeared, there the indefatigable ISTelsou, Avith his unwearied 
and ever ready squadron of eleven ships — veterans in the 
highest sense of the word, in organization, practice, and en- 
durance ; alert, and solid as men of iron. 

This important and most opportune arrival came about as 
follows. Anchoring on the 19th of July at Gibraltar, Nelson 
found everything ready for the re-equipment of his ships, owing 
to his foresight in directing it. All set to work at once to 
prepare for immediate departure. When I have " completed 
the fleet to four months' provisions, and with stores for Chan- 
nel service," he wrote to the Admiralty, "I shall get outside 
the Mediterranean, leaving a sufficient force to watch Cartha- 
gena, and proceed as upon a due consideration, (on reading 
Vice-Admiral Collingwood's orders, and those which Rear- 
Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton may have received during my 
absence,) may suggest to be most proper. Should I hear that 
the enemy are gone to some of the ports in the Bay, I shall 
join the squadron off Ferrol, or off Ushant, as I think the case 
requires." There will be observed here the same striking 
combination of rapidity, circumspection, and purpose prepared 
by reflection for instant action in emergencies, that character- 
ized him usually, and especially in these four months of chase. 
"The squadron is in the most perfect health," he continues, 
" except some symptoms of scurvy, which I hope to eradicate 
by bullocks and refreshments from Tetuan, to which I will 
proceed to-morrow." The getting fresh beef at Tetuan, it 
will be remembered, had been stopped by a fair wind on the 
5th of May. Since then, and in fact since a month earlier, no 
opportunity of obtaining fresh provisions had offered during 
his rapid movements. " The fleet received not the smallest 
refreshment, not even a cup of water in the West Indies," he 
told the Queen of Naples. The admiral himself got only a 
few sheep, in the nine days' round. 

Even now, the intention to go to Tetuan, advisable as the 



RAPIDITY OF MOVEMENT 673 

step was, was contingent npon the opportunity offering of 
reaching a position whence he could move with facility. 
Nelson did not mean to be back-strapped again within the 
Mediterranean, with a west wind, and a current setting to 
leeward, if the enemy turned up in the Atlantic. " If the 
wind is westerly," he wrote on the early morning of the 22d, 
"I shall go to Tetuan: if easterly, out of the straits." At 
half-past nine that day the fleet weighed, and at half-past 
seven in the evening anchored at Tetuan, whither orders had 
already gone to prepare bullocks and fresh vegetables for 
delivery. At noon of the 23d the ships again lifted their 
anchors, and started. " The fleet is complete," he wrote the 
First Lord that day, "and the first easterly wind, I shall 
pass the Straits." Fortune apparently had made up her mind 
now to balk him no more. Thirty-six hours later, at 3.30 A. m. 
of July 25th, being then off Tarifa, a little west of Gibraltar, 
the sloop-of-war " Termagant," one of his own Mediterra- 
nean cruisers, came alongside, and brought him a newspaper, 
received from Lisbon, containing an account of the report 
carried to England by the "Curieux." "I know it's true," 
he wrote to tlie Admiralty, '' from my Avords being repeated, 
therefore I shall not lose a moment, after I have communi- 
cated with Admiral Collingwood, in getting to the northAvard 
to either Ferrol, Ireland, or Ushant ; as information or cir- 
cumstances may point out to be proper." In his haste to pro- 
ceed, and wishing to summon the "Amazon" frigate to 
rejoin him, he sent the " Termagant " at once to Gibraltar, 
Avithout understanding that she Avas just from there and had 
on board his clothes left for Avashing ; in consequence of 
Avhich precipitancy she "carried all my things, even to my 
last shirt, back again." "As I fancied he came from Lisbon," 
he explained, "I Avould not allow him to stop." "My dear 
Parker," he wrote the frigate-captain, " make haste and join 
me. If all places fail you will find me at Spithead." Parker, 
Avho was a favorite of the admiral's, followed out the careful 
detailed instructions Avhich accompanied this note, but could 
not overtake the fleet, and from incidents of the service never 
met Nelson again. 

With a fresh easterly gale the squadron pressed again into 
the Atlantic. As it Avent on for Cape St. Vincent, Colling- 

43 



674 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

wood's division was seen some distance to leeward, but, as 
not infrequently happens in and near the Mediterranean, the 
wind with it came from the opposite quarter to that which 
Nelson had. The latter, therefore, would not stop, nor lose 
a mile of the ground over which his fair breeze was carrying 
him. "My dear Collingwood," he wrote, " We are in a fresh 
Levanter. You have a westerly wind, therefore I must forego 
the pleasure of taking you by the hand until October next, 
when, if I am well enough, I shall (if the Admiralty please) 
resume the command. I am very far from well ; but I am 
anxious that not a moment of the services of this fleet should 
be lost." Matters therefore were left standing much as they 
were when he passed in a week before. He had taken upon 
himself, however, with a discretion he could now assume 
freely, to change the Admiralty's orders, issued during his 
absence, withdrawing most of the small cruisers from about 
Malta, to reinforce Collingwood's division. When he first 
learned of this step, he said it was a mistake, for double the 
number he had left there were needed ; " but the orders of 
the Admiralty must be obeyed. I only hope officers will not 
be blamed for the events v.'hich it is not difficult to foresee 
wiH happen." With the crowd of enemy's privateers in those 
waters, Malta, he was assured, would be cut off from all com- 
munication. He soon made up his mind that he would use 
his own discretion and modify the dispositions taken. " Malta 
cannot more than exist, and our troops would be placed in a 
position of great distress," he told the Admiralty. "I trans- 
mit a statement of the force T think necessary to the eastward 
of Carthagena for performing the services intrusted to my 
care, and when I get the lists I shall apportion them as far 
as their number will allow, and my judgment will admit." 
" I hope the Board will consider this as not wishing to alter 
any arrangement of theirs, but as a measure absolutely neces- 
sary." Within his own field Nelson was now, by proved pro- 
fessional genius, above the restraint of Boards ; and when he 
reached England the new First Lord had the wisdom to admit 
it, in this supreme crisis, by giving him full control, within 
the resources of the countiy, over the constitution of the 
fleet with which he fought Trafalgar. 

Letters left for Bickerton and Collingwood placed them in 




iFor Lire or.Vrlxon ) 



JOINS FLEET OFF BREST 075 

possession of his ideas, including the revocation of the Ad- 
miralty's order ; and, in an official letter, he earnestly recom- 
mended the latter officer to adhere to his arrangements. 
Word was also sent forward to Cornwallis, and to the com- 
mander-in-chief at Cork, as well as to the Admiralty, to notify 
them of his approach. To the northward of Cape St. Vincent 
he met the northerly winds that prevail on the Portuguese 
coast. Delayed by these, he was three full weeks making the 
passage from Gibraltar to the Channel Fleet, which he joined 
at 3 p. M. of August 15th, twenty-five miles west of Ushant. 
To this point his movements were finally determined by a 
frigate, which was spoken on the 12th of August, and in- 
formed him that up to three days before no intelligence had 
been received of the enemy's arrival in the Bay of Biscay, or 
on the Irish coast. Cornwallis excused him from the cus- 
tomary personal visit, and authorized him to proceed at once 
to Portsmouth with the " Victory," in pursuance of the Ad- 
miralty's leave which he so long had had in his hands. On 
the morning of August 18th, the long and fruitless chase of 
the allied fleet was brought to an end by the dropping of the 
" Victory's " anchor at Spithead. To Davison Nelson summed 
up his disappointment in the exasperated expression, " D — n 
General Brereton." ^ 

From newspapers received off Ushant he first learned of 
Calder's battle, and the public dissatisfaction with the results. 
He had undergone too much frustration and anxiety himself 
not to feel for an officer who had made a mistake, although it 
may safely be said that Calder's mistake was not only one 
Nelson could not have made, but was the exact opposite of 
the course which Nelson by anticipation had said he would 

1 The extent of Brereton's fault (if at fault) depended, probably, upon the 
character and responsibility of the man he had on lookout at so. critical a 
moment, and the care with which he tested the report made to him. Brere- 
ton did not know of Nelson's ai'rival, possibly not of his approach. At the 
same time men must take the blame of carelessness, when harm comes of it. 
Ball, connnenting to Nelson upon the incident, said : "I think orders should 
be given, that when a fleet is discovered, an officer should be sent for to wit- 
ness it, and that one should be at the signal hill at the rising and setting 
of the sun. I have often reflected on these circumstances, and on the little 
attention generally paid them." As it stands, the whole aff"air is a warning 
to officers, of what results may flow from errors sinall in themselves. 



676 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

adopt. He expressed himself in words of generous sympathy. 
" I was bewildered by the account of Sir Eobert Calder's vic- 
tory, and the joy of the event ; together with the hearing that 
John Bull was not content, which I am sorry for. Who can, 
my dear Fremantle, command all the success which our Country 
may wish ? We have fought together, and therefore well know 
what it is. I have had the best disposed fleet of friends, but 
who can say what will be the ev^ent of a battle ? and it most 
sincerely grieves me, that in any of the papers it should 
be insinuated, that Lord Nelson could have done better. I 
should have fought the enemy, so did my friend Calder; but 
who can say that he will be more successful than another ? 
I only wish to stand upon ray own merits, and not by com- 
parison, one way or the other, upon the conduct of a brother 
officer. You will forgive this dissertation, but I feel upon 
the occasion." These words, which spoke the whole of his 
honest heart, were the more generous, because he believed 
Calder to be one of the few professional enemies that he 
had. 

From the place where Villeneuve was met, Nelson reasoned, 
again, that the primary intention of the allies, returning from 
the West Indies, had been to enter the Straits. " By all 
accounts I am satisfied their original destination Avas the 
Mediterranean, but they heard frequently of our track." This 
persistence in his first view, was partly due to the confidence 
with which he held to his own convictions, — the defect of 
a strong quality, — partly, doubtless, to the fact that Villeneiive 
had blundered in his homeward course, and fetched unneces- 
sarily to leeward of his port, with reference to winds per- 
fectly understood by seamen of that day. In fact he had no 
business to be where he brought up, except on the supposition 
that he was makimi for the Straits. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Nelson's Last Stay in England. 
August 19-September 15, 1805. Age, 4G. 

THE "Victory" was delayed in quarantine twenty-four 
hours, when orders from London directed her release. 
At 9 p. M. of the 19th of August, Nelson's flag was hauled 
down, and he left the ship for Merton, thus ending an absence 
of two years and three months. His home being but an hour's 
drive from the heart of London, the anxieties of the time, and 
his own eagerness to communicate his views and experience, 
carried him necessarily and at once to the public offices — to 
the Admiralty first, but also to the Secretaries for Foreign 
Affairs and for War, both of whom had occasion for the 
knowledge and suggestions of so competent and practised an 
observer. The present head of the Admiralty, Lord Barhani, 
had succeeded to the office, unexpectedly, upon the sudden 
retirement of INIelville the previous May. He was a naval 
officer, eighty years of age, who since middle life had exchanged 
the active sea-going of the profession, for civil duties connected 
with it. He had thus been out of touch with it on the military 
side ; and although Nelson was of course well known to him 
by reputation and achievement, he had not that intimate per- 
sonal experience of his character and habit of thought, upon 
which was based the absolute confidence felt by St. Vincent, 
and by all others who had seen the great warrior in active 
service. "Lord Barham is an almost entire stranger to me," 
wrote Nelson ; but after their interview he left with him the 
journals in which were embodied the information obtained 
during his recent command, with his comments upon the affairs 
of the Mediterranean in particular, and, as incidental thereto, 
of Europe in general. Barham, who gave proof of great mili- 
tary capacity during his short term of office, was so much im- 



678 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

pressed by the sagacity and power of Nelson's remarks, that 
lie assured the Cabinet he ought by all means to go back to 
the JNIediterranean ; and it may be assumed that the latter's 
wish so to do would have been gratified, at the time of his own 
choosing, had not otlier events interposed to carry him away 
earlier, and to end his career. 

It was upon one of these visits to Ministers that Nelson and 
Wellington met for the only time in their lives. The latter 
had just returned from a long service in India, reaching Eng- 
land in September, 1805. His account of the interview, trans- 
mitted to us by Croker, is as follows : — 

Walmer, October 1st, 1834. 
We were talking of Lord Nelson, and some instances were mentioned 
of the egotism and vanity that derogated from his character. " Why," 
said the Duke, " I am not surprised at such instances, for Lord Nelson 
was, in different circumstances, two quite different men, as I myself 
can vouch, though I only saw him once in my life, and for, perhaps, 
an hour. It was soon after I returned from India. I went to the 
Colonial Office ^ in Downing Street, and there I was shown into the 
little waiting-room on the right hand, where 1 found, also waiting to 
see the Secretary of State, a gentleman, whom, from his likeness to 
his pictures and the loss of an arm, I immediately recognized as Lord 
Nelson. He could not know who I was, but he entered at once into 
conversation with me, if I can call it conversation, for it was almost 
all on his side and all about himself, and in, really, a style so vain 
and so silly as to surprise and almost disgust me. I suppose some- 
thing that I happened to say may have made him guess that I was 
somebody, and he went out of the room for a moment, I have no doubt 
to ask the office-keeper who I was, for when he came back he was al- 
together a different man, both in manner and matter. All that I had 
thought a charlatan style had vanished, and he talked of the state of 
this country and of the aspect and probabilities of affaii's on the Con- 
tinent with a good sense, and a knowledge of subjects both at home 
and abroad, that surprised me equally and more agreeably than the 
first part of our interview had done ; in fact, he talked like an officer 
and a statesman. The Secretary of State kept us long waiting, and 
certainly, for the last half or three quarters of an hour, I don't know 

1 In a letter to the Earl of Moinington, dated December 21st, 1805, Wel- 
lington, then Wellesley, said, " I arrived in England about September 10th." 
Tlie margin of time for meeting Nelson, who left Merton on the 13th, was 
therefore small, and fixes very closely the date of this interesting interview. 
Tlie Colonial and War Offices seem then to have been under one head. 



Ills MILITARY OPINIONS 679 

that I ever had a conversation that interested me more. Now, if the 
Secretary of State had been punctual, and admitted Lord Nelson in 
the first quarter of an hour, I should have had the same impression of 
a light and trivial character that other people have had; but luckily 
.1 saw enough to be satisfied that he was really a very superior man ; 
but certainly a more sudden and complete metamorphosis I never 
saw."^ 

This is not the only record that remains to us of those 
interesting interviews with Cabinet Ministers, although the 
most have passed away unnoted. It was in one of them that 
he uttered a military opinion, for whose preservation we are 
indebted to his own mention of it in a private letter ; an opin- 
ion so characteristic of his habits of thought, his reasoned 
motives of action, that, although it has before been quoted, it 
is fitting to repeat it in his own words and in full. 

When he reached England, the naval situation, as far as 
then known, was that Napoleon had twenty-one French ships- 
of-the-line in Brest, and twenty-eight or nine, French and 
Spanish, in Ferrol ; while Cornwallis had thirty-five British 
of£ Brest. This was the condition on the 15th of August, 
when Nelson parted from the fleet off Ushant. Very soon 
after his arrival in town, news was received that Villeneuve 
had gone to sea from Ferrol, and that Cornwallis, when in- 
formed of the fact, had divided his fleet, with great lack of 
judgment, keeping himself seventeen ships to confront the 
Brest squadron, while eighteen were sent to look for Villeneuve 
under the command of Admiral Calder. In the public discon- 
tent with the latter, it was not reassuring to know that, at a 
moment when every one's nerves were on the rack, he was 
again intrusted with the always difficult task of coping with a 
much superior force. While this state of excitement prevailed, 
Nelson called upon the Secretary of State, Lord Castlereagh, 
on the 23d of August. " Yesterday," he wrote to Captain 
Keats, '' the Secretary of State, which is a man who has only 
sat one solitary day in his office, and of course knows but little 
of what is passed, and indeed the Minister,^ were all full of 
the enemy's fleet, and as I am now set up for a Conjuror, 
and God knows they will very soon find out I am far from 

1 Correspoudence and Diaries of John Wilson Croker, vol. ii. p. 233. 

2 The Prime Minister Pitt. 



680 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

being one, I was asked my opinion, against my inclination, 
for if I make one wrong guess the charm will be broken ; but 
this I ventured without any fear, that if Calder got close along- 
side their twenty-seven or twenty-eight sail, that by the time 
the enemy had beat our fleet soundly, they would do us no 
harm this year." 

This acute perception of the reason why it was at times 
desirable and proper to hurl a smaller though more efficient 
force against superior numbers, content that the latter, as a 
factor, were for the campaign annihilated, — this realization 
of the possible fruitfulness of a defeat, or rather, of a battle 
wisely lost, as contrasted with what Jomini calls the sterile 
glory of fighting battles merely to win them, — is one of the 
most marked and decisive features of Nelson's genius as a 
general officer. It recurs over and over again, and at all 
periods, in his correspondence, this clear and full appreciation 
of the relation of the parts to the whole. ^ It underlay his 
sustained purpose during the long pursuit of tbe preceding 
months, that, if he found the allied squadron, "they would 
not part without a battle." Whatever else the result, that 
particular division would do no harm that year, and with it 
necessarily fell the great combination, whatever that might 
be, of which it was an essential factor. '' The event would 
have been in the hands of Providence," he wrote to Bar- 
ham ; " but Ave may without, I hojje, vanity, believe that the 
enemy would have been fit for no active service after such 
a battle." There is wanting to the completeness of this admir- 
able impulse only the stead3nng resolve that he would bide 
his time, so as, to use Napoleon's phrase, to have the most of 
the chances on his side when he attacked. This also we know 
he meant to do. " I will wait, till they give me an opportunity 
too tempting to be resisted, or till they draw near the shores 
of Europe." In such qualification is to be seen the equipoise 
of the highest order of ability. This union of desperate 
energy with calculating wariness was in him not so much a 
matter of reasoning, though reason fully endorses it, as it 
was the gift of nature, — genius, in short. Reasoning of a 
very high order illuminates Nelson's mental processes and 
justifies his conclusions, but it is not in the power of reason, 

1 Compare, for example, ante, p. 361. 



THE POPULAR ENTHUSIASM 681 

when face to face with emergency, to bridge the chasm that 
separates perception, however clear, from the inward convic- 
tion which alone sustains the loftiest action. " Responsi- 
bility," said St. Vincent, " is the test of a man's courage." 
Emergency, it may be said, is the test of his faith in his 
beliefs. 

While those at the head of the State thus hung upon his 
counsels, and drew encouragement from his indomitable con- 
fidence, the people in the streets looked up to him with that 
wistful and reverent dependence which does not wholly under- 
stand, but centres all its trust upon a tried name. They 
knew what he had done in the now distant past, and they had 
heard lately that he had been to the West Indies, and had 
returned, having saved the chief jewel among the colonies of 
the empire. They knew, also, that their rulers were fearful 
about invasion, and that in some undefined way Nelson had 
stood, and would yet stand, between them and harm. The 
rapidity of his movements left little interval between the 
news of his being back at Gibraltar and the announcement of 
his arrival at Portsmouth, which was not generally expected. 
On the 19th of August, a day after the " Victory " anchored 
at Spithead, Lord Radstock wrote: '"T is extraordinary no 
official accounts have been received from Lord Nelson since 
the 27th of July. He then hinted that he might perhaps go 
to Ireland ; nevertheless, we liave had no tidings of him on 
that coast. I confess I begin to be fearful that he has wor- 
ried his mind up to that pitch, that he cannot bear the idea 
of showing himself again to the world, until he shall have 
struck some blow, and that it is this hope that is now making 
him run about, half-frantic, in quest of adventures. That 
such unparalleled perseverance and true valor should thus 
evaporate in air is truly melancholy." 

If any doubt of the approval of his countrymen mingled 
with the distress Nelson unquestionably felt at having missed 
the enemy, he was touchingly undeceived. As soon as the 
" Victory " and his flag were made out, the people flocked to 
Portsmouth, collecting on the ramparts of the town and other 
points of view, in inaudible testimony of welcome. As the 
barge pulled to the shore, and upon lauding, he was greeted 
with loud and long-continued cheering. In London the same 



682 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

demonstrations continued whenever he was recognized in public* 
" Lord Nelson arrived a few days ago," wrote Eadstock. " He 
was received in town almost as a conqueror, and was followed 
round by the people with huzzas. So much for a great and 
good name most nobly and deservedly acquired." "I met 
Nelson in a mob in Piccadilly," w^rote JMinto at the same time, 
"and got hold of his arm, so that I -was mobbed too. It is 
really quite affecting to see the wonder and admiration, and 
love and respect of the whole world ; and the genuine expres- 
sion of all these sentiments at once, from gentle and simple, the 
moment he is seen. It is beyond anything represented in a 
play or in a poem of fame." In these few days was concen- 
trated the outward reward of a life spent in the service of his 
country. During them, Nelson w^as conspicuously the first 
man in England, — first alike in the love of the people and 
in importance to the State. 

On the private side, also, his life for this brief respite was 
eminently happy, marred only by the prospect of a speedy 
departure, the signal for which sounded even sooner than was 
expected. By his own account, he was only four times in 
London, and all the moments that could be spared from 
external calls he spent at Merton, where there gathered a 
large family party, including all his surviving brothers and 
sisters, with several of their children. "I cannot move at 
present," he writes on the 31st of August, in declining an 
invitation, " as all my family are Avith me, and my stay is very 
uncertain; and, besides, I have refused for the present all 
invitations." " I went to Merton on Saturday " (August 24th), 
wrote Minto, '•' and found Nelson just sitting down to dinner, 
surrounded by a family party, of his brother the Dean, Mrs. 
Nelson, their children, and the children of a sister. Lady 
Hamilton at the head of the table, and Mother Cadogan ^ at 
the bottom. I had a hearty welcome. He looks remarkably 
well and full of spirits. His conversation is a cordial in these 
low times. Lady Hamilton has improved and added to the 
house and the place extremely well, without his knowing 
she was about it. He found it already done. She is a clever 
being, after all : the passion is as hot as ever." 

Over all hung, unseen, the sword of Damocles. Nelson 
1 Lady Hamilton's mother. 



] 



PRESENTIMENTS 683 



himself seems to have been possessed already by vague pre- 
monitions of the coming end, which deepened and darkened 
around him as he went forward to his fate. The story told 
of his saying to the upholsterer, who had in charge the coffin 
made from the mast of the "Orient," that a certificate of its 
identity should be engraved on the lid, because he thought it 
highly probable that he might want it on his return, is, indeed, 
but a commonplace, light-hearted remark, which derives what 
significance it has purely from the event ; but it is easy to 
recognize in his writings the recurrent, though intermittent, 
strain of unusual foreboding. Life then held much for him ; 
and it is when richest that the possibility of approaching loss 
possesses the consciousness with the sense of probability. 
Upon a soul of his heroic temper, however, such presentiments, 
though they might solemnize and consecrate the passing 
moments, had no power to appall, nor to convert cheerfulness 
into gloom. The light that led him never burned more 
brightly, nor did he ever follow with more unfaltering step. 

Fixed in his mind to return to his command in October, he 
soon felt that, in the uncertainties of the French movements, 
a call might come at any moment. Although he nowhere says 
so, his mind was doubtless made up that, if Villeneuve's 
twenty-nine sail went to, or near, the Mediterranean, he would 
go out at once. " Every ship," he writes on the 31st of 
August, "even the Victory, is ordered out, for there is an 
entire ignorance whether the Ferrol fleet is coming to the 
northward, gone to the Mediterranean, or cruizing for our 
valuable homeward-bound fleet." " Mr. Pitt," he tells a friend 
as early as the 29th, " is pleased to think that my services 
may be wanted. I hope Calder's victory (which I am most 
anxiously expecting) will render my going forth unnecessary." 
" I hold myself ready," he writes again on the 3d of Septem- 
ber, " to go forth whenever I am desired, although God knows 
I want rest ; but self is entirely out of the question." ^ 

It was not, therefore, to a mind or will unprepared that the 
sudden intimation came on the 2d of September — just a fort- 
night after he left the "Victory." That morning there arrived 
in town Captain Blackwood of the frigate " Euryalus," which 

1 Nelson to Right Hon. George Rose, August 29 and September 3, 1805 : 
Nicolas, vol. vii. pp. 18, 19, 29. 



' 



684 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

had been despatched by Collingwood to notify the Admiralty 
tlaat the missing Villeneuve had turned up with his squadron 
at Cadiz, on the 20th of August. Blackwood Avas an old 
friend and follower. It was he who had commanded the 
" Penelope " in March, 1800, and more than any one present 
had insured the capture of the '•' Guillaume Tell," when she 
ran out from Malta,^ — the greatest service, probably, ren- 
dered to Nelson's reputation by any man who ever sailed 
under his orders. He stopped first at Merton at five o'clock 
in the morning, and found Nelson already up and dressed. 
The latter said at once, " I am sure you bring me news of the 
French and Spanish fleets, and I think I shall yet have to 
beat them." Later in the day he called at the Admiralty, 
and there saw Blackwood again. In the course of conversa- 
tion, which turned chiefly upon future operations in the Med- 
iterranean, he frequently repeated, " Depend on it, Blackwood, 
I shall yet give Mr. Villeneuve a drubbing," an expression 
whose wording evinces animation and resolve, — far removed 
from the troubled indecision from which, by her own account, 
Lady Hamilton freed him. 

It was speedily determined by the Government that the com- 
bined fleets in Cadiz should be held there, or forced to fight if 
they left; the country had passed through a fortnight of too 
great anxiety, to risk any chance of its repetition by a re- 
newed evasion. Ignorant of the reasons which dictated Vil- 
leneuve's course, and that it was not accordant but contrary 
to his orders, it was natural to suppose that there was some 
further object indicated by the position now taken, and that 
that object was the Mediterranean. Moreover, so large a 
body of commissioned ships — nearly forty — as were now 
assembled, could not fail to tax severely the resources of a 
port like Cadiz, and distress would tend to drive them out 
soon. Thirty thousand able-bodied men are a heavy addi- 
tional load on the markets of a small city, blockaded by seq., 
and with primitive communications by land. Upon this rested 
Nelson's principal hope of obliging them to come forth, if 
Napoleon himself did not compel them. Their position, he 
wrote the Secretary for War soon after he joined the fleet, 

1 Ante, p. 43L 



THE ALLIED FLEETS AT CADIZ 685 

seemed to favor an attack by rockets ; "but I think we have a 
better chance of forcing them out by want of provisions : it is 
said hunger will break through stone walls, — ours is only a 
wall of wood." "It is said that there is a great scarcity 
of provisions in Cadiz." He then mentioned that the allies 
were endeavoring to meet this difficulty by sending neutral 
vessels, loaded with food-stuffs, from French ports to all 
the small harbors on either side of Cadiz, whence the stores 
carried by them could be transferred by coasting-boats, — a 
process which ships were powerless to stop. Collingwood, 
therefore, had seized the neutrals, and sent tliera into Gibraltar, 
a step which Nelson had approved and continued. For it he 
then demanded the authority of his government. "Should it 
be thought proper to allow the enemy's fleet to be victualled, 
I request that I may be informed as soon as possible." 

In connection with this subject Nelson made an allusion to 
a policy with which Castlereagh, the minister he was address- 
ing, was afterwards identified, — that of the celebrated Orders 
in Council of 1807, and the license system connected with it. 
This is one of the few intimations we have of the wide range 
of subjects upon which he conversed with members of the 
Cabinet while in England ; and it is interesting, not only as 
showing how far back those measures originated, but also as 
illustrating his own prophetic intuition of the construction 
which would be placed upon such proceedings. " I can have 
nothing, as an Admiral, to say upon the propriety of granting 
licences; but from what your Lordship told me of the inten- 
tion of Ministers respecting the neutral trade, it strikes me, 
some day it may be urged that it was not for the sake of block- 
ade, but for the purpose of taking all the trade into her own 
hands, that Great Britain excluded the Neutrals. Your Lord- 
ship's wisdom will readily conceive all that Neutral Courts 
may urge at this apparent injustice, and of might overcoming 
right." ^ This shrewdly accurate forecast of a contention 
which was not to arise till after his death is but one instance 

^ This is the earliest intimation that has come under the author's ej^e of 
the formulation (as distinguished from the development) of the groups of Or- 
ders in Council of 1807, bearing upon the Neutral Trade, which were issued 
and carried out by a Ministry other than the one which Nelson knew. The 
measure was clearly under consideration before Trafalgar. 



GS6 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

among many of Nelson's clearness of judgment, in political as 
well as in military matters. 

Nelson's services, upon this, his final departure from Eng- 
land, were rather requested by the Government than by him 
volunteered — in the ordinary sense of the word. He went 
willingly enough, doubtless, but in obedience, proud and glad, 
to the summons, not only of the popular cry, but of the Cabi- 
net's wish. " I own I want much more rest," he wrote to 
Elliot, immediately after joining the fleet off Cadiz ; " but it 
was thought right to desire me to come forth, and I obeyed." 
" I expected to lay my weary bones quiet for the winter," he 
told another friend in Naples, "but I ought, perhaps, to be 
proud of the general call which has made me to go forth." 
The popularly received account, therefore, derived from Lady 
Hamilton, of her controlling influence in the matter, may be 
dismissed as being — if not apocryphal — merely one side of 
the dealing by which he had to reconcile the claims of patri- 
otic duty with the appeals of the affections. As told by 
Southey, her part in his decision was as follows : " When 
Blackwood had left him, he wanted resolution to declare his 
wishes to Lady Hamilton and his sisters, and endeavoured to 
drive away the thought. He had done enough, he said : '■ Let 
the man trudge it avIio has lost his budget !' His countenance 
belied his lips ; and as he Avas pacing one of the walks in the 
garden, which he used to call the quarter-deck, Lady Hamil- 
ton came up to him, and said she saw he was uneasy. He 
smiled, and said : ' No, he was as happy as possible ; he was 
surrounded by his family, his health was better since he had 
been on shore, and he would not give sixpence to call the 
king his uncle.' She replied, that she did not believe him, 
that she knew he was longing to get at the combined fleets, 
that he considered them as his own property, that he would 
be miserable if any man but himself did the business, and 
that he ought to have them, as the price and reward of his two 
years' long watching, and his hard chase. ' Nelson,' said she, 
'however we may lament your absence, offer your services; 
they will be accepted, and you will gain a quiet heart by it ; 
you will have a glorious victory, and then you may return 
here, and be happy.' He looked at her with tears in his 
eyes: 'Brave Emma! Good Emma! If there were more 



PREPARES TO RESUME HIS COMMAND 687 

Emmas, there would be more Nelsons.' His services were 
as willingly accepted as they were offered." 

The fidelity with which Nelson destroyed Lady Hamilton's 
letters prevents our knowing just what was her attitude 
towards his aspirations for glory, and her acquiescence in his 
perils, in view of the entire dependence of her future upon his 
life ; a dependence such as an honored wife could by no means 
feel, for the widow of Nelson could rely safely upon the love 
of the nation. Certain it is that his letters to her contain 
enough appeals to the sense she should have of his honor, to 
show that he stood in need of no strengthening at her hands ; 
and it seems legible enough, between the lines, that he had 
rather to resist the pull of her Aveakness, or her interest, than 
to look for encouragement in the path of hardship and self- 
denial. It is certain, too, that some days before Blackwood 
arrived, Nelson understood tliat he might be wanted soon, and 
avowed his entire willingness to go, while not affecting to con- 
ceal his hope tliat circumstances might permit him to remain 
until October, the time he had fixed to Collingwood for his 
return. Whatever the inside history, the matter was quickly 
settled. On September 3d, the day after Blackwood's arrival, 
he writes to Bose : " I shall rejoice to see you on board the 
Victory, if onl^' for a moment ; but I shall certainly not be an 
advocate for being at Portsmouth till one of the Victory's 
anchors are at the bows." ^ The next day, the 4th, Lord 
Minto writes : " Lord Nelson has been here to-day. He is 
going to resume the command of the Mediterranean as soon as 
the Victory is ready, which will be within a week." On the 
5th he himself tells a friend, " All viy things are this day 
going off for Portsmouth." 

The ten days that followed were for him, necessarily, very 
busy ; but mental preoccupation — definiteness of object — 
was always beneficial to him. Even the harassing run to and 
from the West Indies had done him good. " I am but so-so," 
he had written to his brother upon arrival ; " yet, what is very 
odd, the better for going to the West Indies, even with the 
anxiety." To this had succeeded the delightful fortnight at 
home, and now the animation and stir of expected active 

1 That is, the ship ready to sail in half an hour, one of the two anchors 
which moor a ship being lifted. 



688 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

service. Minto had already noted his exhilaration amid the 
general public gloom, and after his death, speaking of these 
last days, said, " He was remarkably well and fresh, and full 
ef hope and spirit." The care of providing him with adequate 
force he threw off upon the Admiralty. There was, of course, 
a consultation between him and it as to the numbers and 
kind of vessels he thought necessary, but his estimate was 
accepted without question, and the ships were promised, as 
far as the resources went. When Lord Barham asked him to 
select his own officers, he is said to have replied, "Choose 
yourself, my lord, the same spirit actuates the whole pro- 
fession ; you cannot choose wrong." He did, nevertheless, 
indicate his wishes in individual cases ; and the expression, 
though characteristic enough of his proud confidence iu the 
officers of the navy, must be taken rather as a resolve not to 
be burdened with invidious distinctions, than as an unqualified 
assertion of fact. 

Kelson, however, gave one general admonition to the Cab- 
inet which is worthy to be borne in mind, as a broad principle 
of unvarying application, more valuable than much labored 
detail. What is wanted, he said, is the annihilation of the 
enemy — " Only numbers can annihilate." ^ It is brilliant and 
inspiring, indeed, to see skill and heroism bearing up against 
enormous odds, and even wrenching victory therefrom ; but it 
is the business of governments to insure that such skill and 
heroism be more profitably employed, in utterly destroying, 
with superior forces, the power of the foe, and so compelling 
peace. Xo general has won more striking successes over 

1 The author wishes to guard himself from seeming to share the perversion, 
as he thinks it, of this saying, into an argument against heavy ships, because 
the heavier the ships, the smaller the number. Without here expressing any 
opinion upon this controverted subject, he would simply quote on the other 
side the view attributed to Nelson during tlie chase to the West Indies. "He 
knew that the French had no three-decked ships in their fleet, and he 
reckoned on the great superiority in close action of three batteries of guns 
over two." (Last of Nelson's Captains, p. 137.) With this may be joined 
a quotation from himself involving implicitly the same idea : " Two [two- 
deckers] alongside an enemy are better than three-deckers a great way off." 
This evidently suggests the idea that one three-decker was better than two 
seventy-fours, conditions being similar. In truth, numbers should be read 
" numbers of guns " — • or, better still, " numbers, other things being equal." 



I 



MINTO TAKES LEAVE OF HIM C89 

superior numbers than did Napoleon ; no ruler has been more 
careful to see that adequate superiority for his own forces was 
provided from the beginning. Nelson believed that he had 
fully impressed the Prime Minister that what was needed now, 
after two and a half years of colorless war, was not a brilliant 
victory for the British Navy, but a crushing defeat for the foe. 
" I hope my absence will not be long," he wrote to Davison, 
" and that I shall soon meet the combined fleets with a force 
sufficient to do the job well : for half a victory would but half 
content me. But I do not believe the Admiralty can give me 
a force Avithin fifteen or sixteen sail-of-the-line of the enemy ; 
and therefore, if every ship took her opponent, we should 
have to contend with a fresh fleet of fifteen or sixteen sail-of- 
the-line. But I will do my best ; and I hope God Almighty 
will go with me. I have much to lose, but little to gain ; 
and I go because it 's right, and I will serve the Country faith- 
fully." He doubtless did not know then that Calder, finding 
Villeneuve had gone to Cadiz, had taken thither the eighteen 
ships detached Avith him from the Brest blockade, and that 
Bickerton had also joined from within the Mediterranean, so 
that CoUingwood, at the moment he was writing, had with 
him twenty-six of the line. His anticipation, however, was 
substantially correct. Despite every effort, the Admiralty up 
to a fortnight before Trafalgar had not given him the number 
of ships he thought necessary, to insure certain watching, and 
crushing defeat. He was particularly short of the smaller 
cruisers wanted. 

On the 12th of September ]\Iinto took his leave of him. " I 
went yesterday to Merton," he wrote on the 13th, " in a great 
hurr}", as Lord Nelson said he was to be at home all day, and 
he dines at half-past three. But I found he had been sent for 
to Carleton House, and he and Lady Hamilton did not return 
till half-past five." The Prince of Wales had sent an urgent 
command that he particularly wished to see him before he left 
England. " I stayed till ten at night," continues Minto, ''and 
I took a final leave of him. He goes to Portsmouth to-night. 
Lady Hamilton was in tears all day yesterday, could not eat, 
and hardly drink, and near swooning, and all at table. It is a 
strange picture. She tells me nothing can be more pure and 
ardent than this flame." Lady Hamilton may have had the 

44 



GOO THE LIFE OF NELSON 

self-control of an actress, but clearly not the reticence of a 
well-bred woman. 

On the following night Kelson left home finally. His last 
act before leaving the house, it is said, was to visit the bed 
where his child, then between four and five, was sleeping, and 
pray over her. The solemn anticipation of death, which from 
this time forward deepened more and more over his fearless 
s];)irit, as the hour of battle approached, is apparent in the 
record of his departure made in his private diary : — 

Frulay Night, September 13th. 
At half -past ten drove from dear dear Mertoii, where I left all which 
I hold dear in this world, to go to serve my King and Country. May 
the great God whom I adore enable me to fulfil the expectations of 
my Country ; and if it is His good pleasure that I should return, my 
thanks will never cease being offered vip to the Throne of His Mercy. 
If it is His good Providence to cut short my days upon earth, I bow 
with the greatest submission, relying that He will protect those so 
dear to me, that 1 may leave behind. His will be done : Amen, Amen, 
Amen. 

At six o'clock on the morning of the 14th Nelson arrived at 
Portsmouth. At half-past eleven his flag was again hoisted 
on board the "■ Victory," and at 2 .p. m. he embarked. His 
youngest and favorite sister, Mrs. Matcham, with her husband, 
had gone to Portsmouth to see him off. As they were parf- 
ing, he said to her : " Oh, Katty ! that gypsy ; " referring to 
his fortune told by a gypsy in the West Indies many years 
before, that he should arrive at the head of his profession by 
the time he was forty. " What then ? " he had asked at the 
moment ; but she replied, "■ I can tell ^-ou no more ; the book 
is closed." ^ The Battle of the Nile, preceding closely the 
completion of his fortieth year, not unnaturally recalled the 
prediction to mind, where the singularity of the coincidence 
left it impressed; and now, standing as he did on the brink 
of great events, with half-acknowledged foreboding weighing 
on his heart, he well may have yearned to know what lay 
beyond that silence, within the closed covers of the book of 
fate. 

1 The author has to thank the present Eaii Nelson for this anecdote. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Antecedents of Trafalgar. 
September 15-October 19, 1805. Age, 47. 

THE crowds that had assembled to greet Nelson's arrival 
at Portsmouth, four weeks before, now clustered again 
around his footsteps to bid him a loving farewell. Although, 
to avoid such demonstrations, he had chosen for his embarka- 
tion another than the usual landing-place, the multitude col- 
lected and followed him to the boat. " They pressed forward 
to obtain sight of his face," says Southey ; " Many were in 
tears, and many knelt down before him, and blessed him as he 
passed. England has had many heroes, but never one," he 
justly adds, " who so entirely possessed the love of his fellow 
countrymen as jSTelson." There attached to him not only the 
memory of many brilliant deeds, nor yet only the knowledge 
that more than any other he stood between them and harm, — 
his very name a tower of strength over against their enemies. 
The deep human sympatliy which won its way to the affections 
of those under his command, in immediate contact with his 
person, seamen as well as officers, had spread from them with 
quick contagion throughout all ranks of men ; and heart 
answered to heart in profound trust, among those who never 
had seen his face. " I had their huzzas before," lie said to 
Captain Hardy, who sat beside him in the boat. '*Now I 
liave their hearts." 

He was accompanied to the ship by Mr. Canning and Mr. 
Rose, intimate associates of Mr. Pitt, and they remained on 
board to dine. Nelson noted that just twenty -five days had 
been passed ashore, " from dinner to dinner." The next 
morning, Sunday, September 15th, at 8 a.m., the "Victory" 
got under way and left St. Helen's, where she had been lying 
at single anchor, waiting to start. Three other line-of-battle 



692 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ships belonging to his fleet, and which followed him in time 
for Trafalgar, were then at Spithead, but not yet ready. The 
" Victory " therefore sailed without them, accompanied only 
by Blackwood's frigate, the " Euryalus." The wind outside, 
being west-southwest, was dead foul, and it was not till the 
17th that the ship was off Plymouth. There it fell nearly 
calm, and she was joined by two seventy-fours from the 
harbor. The little squadron continued its course, the wind 
still ahead, until the 20th of the month, when it had not yet 
gained a hundred miles southwest from Scilly. Here Nelson 
met his former long-tried second in the Mediterranean, Sir 
Eichard Bickerton, going home ill ; having endured the pro- 
tracted drudgery off Toulon only to lose, by a hair's breadth, 
his share in the approaching triumph. 

On the 2oth the " Victory " was off Lisbon. " We have 
had only one day's real fair wind," wrote Nelson to Lady 
Hamilton, "but by perseverance we have done much." The 
admiral sent in letters to the British consul and naval officers, 
urging them to secure as many men as possible for the fleet, 
but enjoining profound secrecy about his coming, conscious 
that his presence would be a deterrent to the enemy and 
might prevent the attempt to leave Cadiz, upon which he 
based his hopes of a speedy issue, and a speedy return home 
for needed repose. His departure from England, indeed, could 
not remain long unknown in Paris; but communications by 
land were slow in those times, and a few days' ignorance of 
his arrival, and of the reinforcement he brought, might induce 
Villeneuve to dare the hazard which he otherwise might fear. 
" Day by day," he wrote to Davison, " I am expecting the 
allied fleet to put to sea — every day, hour, and moment." 
" I am convinced," he tells Blackwood, who took charge of the 
inshore lookout, " that you estimate, as I do, the importance 
of not letting these rogues escape us without a fair fight, 
which I pant for by day, and dream of by night." For the 
same reasons of secrecy he sent a frigate ahead to Colling- 
wood, with orders that, when the "Victory" appeared, not 
only should no salutes be fired, but no colors should be shown, 
if in sight of the port. The like precautions were continued 
when any new ship joined. Every care was taken to lull the 
enemy into confidence, and to lure him out of port. 



JOYFUL GREETING OF THE CAPTAINS 693 

A't 6 p. M. of Saturday, September 28th, the '' Victory " 
reached the fleet, then numbering twenty-nine of the line ; 
the main body being fifteen to twenty miles west of Cadiz, 
with six shijis close in with the port. The next day was 
Nelson's birthday — forty-seven years old. The junior ad- 
mirals and the captains visited the commander-in-chief, as 
customary, but with demonstrations of gladness and confidence 
that few leaders have elicited in equal measure from their 
followers. " The reception I met with on joining the fleet 
caused the sweetest sensation of my life. The officers who 
came on board to welcome my return, forgot my rank as 
commander-in-chief in the enthusiasm with which they greeted 
me. As soon as these emotions were past, I laid before them 
the plan I had previously arranged for attacking the enemy ; 
and it was not only my pleasure to find it generally approved, 
but clearly perceived and understood." To Lady Hamilton 
he gave an account of this scene which differs little from the 
above, except in its greater vividness. "I believe my arrival 
was most welcome, not only to the Commander of the fleet, 
but also to every individual in it ; and, when I came to explain 
to them the ' Nelson touch,^ it was like an electric shock. 
Some shed tears, all approved — ' It was new — it was singu- 
lar — it was simple ! ' and, from admirals downwards, it was 
repeated — ' It must succeed, if ever they will allow us to get 
at them ! You are, my Lord, surrounded by friends whom 
you inspire with confidence.' Some may be Judas's ; but the 
majority are certainly much pleased with my commanding 
them." No more joyful birthday levee was ever held than 
that of this little naval court. Besides the adoration for 
Nelson personally, which they shared with their countrymen 
in general, there mingled with the delight of the captains the 
sentiment of professional appreciation and confidence, and a 
certain relief, noticed by Codrington, from the dry, unsympa- 
thetic rule of Collingwood, a man just, conscientious, highly 
trained, and efficient, but self-centred, rigid, uncommunicative ; 
one who fostered, if he did not impose, restrictions upon the 
intercourse between the ships, against which he had inveighed 
bitterly when himself one of St. Vincent's captains. Nelson, 
on the contrary, at once invited cordial social relations with 
the commanding officers. Half of the thirty-odd were sum- 



694 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

moned to dine on board the flagship the first day, and half the 
second. Not till the third did he permit himself the luxury 
of a quiet dinner chat with his old chum, the second in com- 
mand, whose sterling merits, under a crusty exterior, he knew 
and appreciated. Codrington mentions also an incident, trivial 
in itself, but illustrative of that outward graciousness of 
manner, which, in a man of Nelson's temperament and posi- 
tion, is rarely the result of careful cultivation, but bespeaks 
rather the inner graciousness of the heart that he abundantly 
possessed. They had never met before, and the admiral, 
greeting him with his usual easy courtesj', handed him a letter 
from his wife, saying that being intrusted with it by a lady, 
he made a point of delivering it himself, ins bead of sending it 
by another. 

The " Nelson touch," or Plan of Attack, expounded to his 
captains at the first meeting, was afterwards formulated in an 
Order, copies of which were issued to the fleet on the 9th of 
October. In this " Memorandum," which was doubtless suffi- 
cient for those who had listened to the vivid oral explanation 
of its framer, the writer finds the simplicity, but not the abso- 
lute clearness, that they recognized. It embodies, however, 
the essential ideas, though not the precise method of execution, 
actually followed at Trafalgar, under conditions considerably 
different from those which Nelson probably anticipated ; and 
it is not the least of its merits as a military conception that it 
could thus, with few signals and without confusion, adapt 
itself at a moment's notice to diverse circumstances. This 
great order not only reflects the ripened experience of its 
author, but contains also the proof of constant mental activity 
and development in his thought ; for it differs materially in 
detail from the one issued a few months before to the fleet, 
when in pursuit of Villeneuve to the West Indies. As the 
final, and in the main consecutive, illustrations of his military 
views, the two are presented here together. 

PLAN OF ATTACK.i 

The business of an English Commander-in-Chief being first to 
bring an Enemy's Fleet to Battle, on tlie most advantageous terms to 

1 May, 1805. 





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PLANS FOR BATTLE • fiOS 



himself, (I mean that of laying his Ships close on board the Enemy, 
as expeditiously as possible ;) and secondly, to continue them there, 
■without separating, until the business is decided; I am sensible 
beyond this object it is not necessary that I should say a word, being 
fully assured that the Admirals and Captains of the Fleet I have 
the honour to command, will, knowing my j)recise object, that of a 
close and decisive Battle, supply any deficiency in my not making 
signals; which may, if extended beyond these objects, either be mis- 
understood, or, if waited for, very probably, from various causes, be 
impossible for the Commander-in-Chief to make : therefore, it will 
only be requisite for me to state, in as few words as possible, the 
various modes in which it may be necessary for me to obtain my 
object, on which depends, not only the honour and glory of our 
Country, but possibly its safety, and with it that of all Europe, from 
French tyranny and oppression. 

If the two Fleets are both willing to fight, but little manoeuvring 
is necessary; the less the better; — a day is soon lost in that busi- 
ness : therefore I will only suppose that the Enemy's Fleet being to 
leeward, standing close upon a wind on the starboard tack, and that 
I am nearly ahead of them, standing on the larboard tack, of course 
I should weather them. The weather must be supposed to be mod- 
erate ; for if it be a gale of wind, the manreuvring of both Fleets is but 
of little avail, and probably no decisive Action would take place 
with the whole Fleet. Two modes present themselves : one to stand 
on, just out of gunshot, until the Van-Ship of my Line would be 
about the centre Ship of the Enemy, then make the signal to wear 
together, then bear up, engage with all our force the six or five Van- 
Ships of the Enemy, passing, certainly, if opportunity offered, through 
their Line. This would prevent their bearing up, and the Action, 
from the known bravery and conduct of the Admirals and Captains, 
would certainly be decisive : the second or third Rear-Ships of the 
Enemy would act as they please, and our Ships would give a good 
account of them, should they persist in mixing with our Ships. 
The other mode would be, to stand under an easy but commanding 
sail, directly for their headmost Ship, so as to prevent the Enemy 
from knowing whether I should pass to leeward or windward of him. 
In that situation, I would make the signal to engage the Enemy to 
leeward, and to cut through their Fleet about the sixth Ship from 
the Van, passing very close; they being on a wind,, and you going 
large, could cut their Line when you please. The Van-Ships of the 
Enemy would, by the time our Rear came abreast of the Van-Ship, 
be severely cut up, and our Van could not expect to escape damage. 
I would then have our Rear Ship, and every Ship in succession, wear, 
continue the Action with either the Van-Ship, or second Ship, as it 
might appear most eligible from her crippled state ; and this mode 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



pursued, I see nothing to prevent the capture of the five or six 
Ships of the Enemy's Van. The two or three Ships of the Enemy's 
Rear ^ must either bear up, or wear ; and, in either case, although they 
would be in a better plight probably than our two Van-Ships (now 
in the Rear) yet they would be separated, and at a distance to lee- 
ward, so as to give our Ships time to refit; and by that time, I 
believe, the Battle would, from the judgment of the Admiral and 
Captains, be over with the rest of them. Signals from tliese moments 
are useless, when every man is disposed to do his duty. The great 
object is for us to support each other, and to keep close to the 
Enemy, and to leeward of him. 

If the Enemy are running away, then the only signals necessai*y 
will be, to engage the Enemy as arriving up with them ; and the 
other ships to pass on for the second, third, &c., giving, if possible, 
a close fire into the Enemy in passing, taking care to give our Ships 
engaged notice of your intention. 



MEMORANDUM. 
(Secret) 

Victory, off Cadiz, 9th October, 180.5. 

General Con- Thinking it almost impossible to bring a Fleet of forty Sail of the 
Line into a Line of Battle in variable winds, thick weather, and other 
circumstances which must occur, without such a loss of time that the 
opportunity would probably be lost of bringing the Enemy to Battle 
in such a manner as to make the business decisive, I have therefore 
made up my mind to keep the Fleet in that position of sailing (with 
the exception of the First and Second in Command) that the Order 
of Sailing is to be the Order of Battle, placing the Fleet in two Lines 

^ The author does not here understand the speaking of " two or three " I'ear 
ships, when the van is supposed to be five or six — making a total of not 
over nine or ten enemies. If this order of attack was issued, as expressly 
stated by Clarke and M 'Arthur, on the chase to the West Indies, Nelson then 
was fully aware that he with ten ships was in pursuit of eighteen. (See ante, 
p. 656.) It appears to the author more probable that it was issued to the 
fleet when off Toulon, in anticipation of a possible meeting with the French 
squadron there, when the disparity of force was less — say, eight to ten. 
This impression is confirmed by the "Plan of Attack" speaking of the 
junior "Admirals" — in the plural. There was but one such in the pur- 
suit to the West Indies. It is quite possible, however, that the same order 
was re-issued upon the later occasion, re-copied witliout change of words. 
In any event, it confirms other statements and actions of Nelson's, that an 
enemy should not be fought ship to ship, but by a concentration on ^mt 
of his order. 



siderations. 



PLANS FOR BATTLE 697 

of sixteen Ships each, with an Advanced Squadron of eight of the 
fastest sailing Two-decked Ships, which will always make, if wanted, 
a Line of twenty-four Sail, on whichever Line the Commander-in- 
Chief may direct. 

The Second in Command will, after my intentions ai'e made known Powers of 
to him, have the entire direction of his Line to make the attack command 
upon the Enemy, and to follow up the blow until they are captured 
or destroyed. 

If the Enemy's Fleet should be seen to windward in Line of Battle, The Attack 
and that the two Lines and the Advanced Squadron can fetch them. Leeward, 
they will probably be so extended that their Van could not succour 
their Rear. 

I should therefore probably make the Second in Command's signal 
to lead through, about their twelfth Ship from their Rear, (or wher- 
ever he could fetch, if not able to get so far advanced) ; my Line 
would lead through about their Centre, and the Advanced Squadron 
to cut two or three or four Ships a-liead of their Centre, so as to 
ensure getting at their Commander-in-Chief, on whom every effort 
must be made to capture. 

The whole impression of the British Fleet must be to overpower The General 
from two or three Ships a-head of their Commander-in-Chief, sup- i^eaTindef 
posed to be in the Centre, to the Rear of their Fleet. I will suppose au Conditions, 
twenty Sail of the Enemy's Line to be untouched, it must be some 
time before they could perform a manoeuvre to bring their force com- 
pact to attack any jiart of the British Fleet engaged, or to succour 
their own Ships, which indeed would be impossible without mixing 
"\\ith the Ships engaged. 

Something must be left to chance ; nothing is sure in a Sea Fight 
beyond all others. Shot will carry away the masts and yards of 
friends as well as foes ; but I look with confidence to a Victory before 
the Van of the Enemy could succour their Rear, and then that the 
British Fleet would most of them be ready to receive their twenty 
Sail of the Line, or to pursue them, should they endeavour to 
make off. 

If the Van of the Enemy tacks, the Captured Ships must run to 
leeward of the British Fleet ; if the Enemy wears, the British must 
place themselves between the Enemy and the Captured, and disabled 
British Ships ; and should the Enemy close, I have no fears as to the 
result. 

The Second in Command will in all possible things direct the I>uties of 
movements of his Line, by keeping them as compact as the nature of " ""^ mates, 
the circumstances will admit. Captains are to look to their particular 
Line as their rallying point. But, in case Signals can neither be seen 
or perfectly understood, no Captain can do very wrong if he places 
his Ship alongside that of an Enemy. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



i 



Of the intended attack from to windward, the Enemy in Line of 
Battle ready to receive an attack, 



Wiud.i 



B = British. I 
E = Enemy. 1 



The Att.ack The divisions of the British Fleet will be brought nearly within 

wTdward. 8"^^^ ^^^°* °^ ^^^^ Enemy's Centre. The signal will most probably then 
be made for the Lee Line to bear up together, to set all their sails, 
even steering sails, in order to get as quickly as possible to the Enemy's 
Line, and to cut through, beginning from the 12 Ship from the 
Enemy's Rear. Some Ships may not get through their exact place, 
but they will always be at hand to assist their friends ; and if any 
are thrown round the Rear of the Enemy, they will effectually com- 
plete the business of twelve Sail of the Enemy. 

Should the Enemy wear together, or bear up and sail large, still 
the twelve Ships composing, in the first position, the Enemy's Rear, 
are to be the object of attack of the Lee Line, unless otherwise di- 
rected from the Commander-in-Chief, which is scarcely to be expected, 
as the entire management of the Lee Line, after the intentions of the 
Commander-in-Chief, is signified, is intended to be left to the judg- 
ment of the Admiral commanding that Line. 
Special Charjre The remainder of the Enemy's Fleet, 34 Sail, are to be left to the 
Commander- management of the Commander-in-Cliief, who will endeavour to take 
iu-ciiief. care that the movements of the Second in Command are as little 

interrupted as is possible. 

Nelson and Bronte. 

It will be borne in mind that the first of these instructions 
was issued for the handling of a small body of ships — ten — 
expecting to meet fifteen to eighteen enemies ; whereas the 
second contemplated the wielding of a great mass of vessels, 
as many as forty British, directed against a possible combi- 
nation of forty-six French and Spanish. In the former case, 
however, although the aggregate numbers were smaller, the 
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TACTICAL METHODS 699 

disproportiou of force was much greater, eveu after allowance 
made for the British three-deckers ; and we know, from other 
contemporary remarks of Nelson, that his object here was not 
so much a crushing defeat of the enemy — " only numbers can 
annihilate " — as the disorganization and neutralization of a 
particular detachment, as the result of which the greater com- 
bination of the enemy would fall to pieces. " After they have 
beaten our fleet sou.ndly, they will do us no more harm this 
summer." ^ Consequently, he relies much upon the confusion 
introduced into the enemy's movements by an attack, which, 
though of much inferior force, should be sudden in character, 
developing only at the last moment, into which the enemy 
should be precipitated unawares, while the British should 
encounter it, or rather should enter it, with minds fully pre- 
pared, — not only for the immediate manoeuvre, but for all 
probable consequences. 

In accordance with the same general object — confusion — 
he directs his assault upon the van, instead of, as at Trafalgar, 
upon the rear ; according to his saying in the Baltic, recorded 
by Stewart,^ " Close with a Frenchman, but out-manoeuvre a 
Russian," for which purpose he would throw his own force, 
preferably, upon the van of the latter. The reason is obvious, 
upon reflection ; for in attacking and cutting off the head — 
van and centre — of a column of ships, the rear, coming up 
under full way, has immediate action forced upon it. There 
is no time for deliberation. The van is already engaged, and 
access to it more or less impeded, by the hostile dispositions. 
The decision must be instant — to the right hand, or to the 
left, to windward, or to leeward — and there is at least an 
even chance that the wrong thing will be done, as well as a 
probability, falling little short of certainty, that all the ships 
of the rear will 7iot do the same thing ; that is, they will be 
thrown into confusion with all its dire train of evils, doubt, 
hesitancy, faltering, and inconsequent action. It is hard work 
to knit again a shattered line under the unremittent assault 
of hardened veterans, such as Nelson's Mediterranean ships. 

The method employed in the second of these instructions, 
the celebrated Memorandum, differs essentially from that of 

1 Ante, pp. 665, 680, ^ j^^te, p. 475. 



700 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

the Plan of Attack, though both are simply developments of 
the one idea of concentration. It is unfortunate for us that 
Nelson, like most men of action, reveals his reasoning pro- 
cesses, not in ordered discussion, but by stray gleams of ex- 
pression, too often unrecorded, from which we can infer only 
the general tenor of his thought. It is in the chance phrase, 
transmitted by Stewart, coupled with the change of object, so 
definitely announced in the second instance, — the crushing, 
namely, of the enemy's great fleet, and not the mere crippling 
of a detachment such as Avent to the West Indies, — that the 
author thinks to find the clew to the diiference of dispositions, 
in the first case, from those prescribed and followed for Trafal- 
gar — the "Nelson touch" that thrilled the captains. There 
is again, indeed, in the latter, the distinct reliance upon con- 
fusion, for the line of the foe is to be broken in two places ; 
but now the confusion introduced is in the part of the enemy 
that is assailed, not, as before, in that which is left out of 
action. Confusion, in short, is now imposed by external force, 
rather than induced by internal perplexity, — a condition 
surer, and therefore more liable to result in a crushing victory, 
for it depends upon the vigor of the offensive, and not on the 
weakness of the defensive, which may prove a deceitful reliance. 
Moreover, effectual crushing requires time, even when, as in 
the final memorandum, a great concentration of superiority 
is intended on part of an enera3''s order. Now, when the van 
and centre are attacked, the rear is pointed fair, and, if it does 
not lose its head, comes quickly up to the rescue ; but when, 
in the contrary case, the centre and rear receive the assault, 
the van, being left out of action, not only has to turn round, 
but naturally stands awa^', for an interval dependent upon the 
initiative of its immediate commander, as occurred to an 
extreme degree at Trafalgar. Thus time, the invaluable five 
minutes or half hour, is gained for the offensive to bring its 
first concentration to a successful issue, as well as to prepare 
to repel the van of the defensive, if it countermarches, as it 
should. " I look with confidence to a victory before the 
van of the enemy could succour their rear, and then that 
the British fleet would most of them be ready to receive their 
twenty sail of the line, or to pursue them, should they en- 
deavour to make off." 



TACTICAL METHODS TOl 

The organization of a distinct body of eight fast-sailing 
ships-of-tlie-line, to be carried to such part of the field as might 
appear necessary to the commander-in-chief in a particular 
emergency, resulted inevitably, perhaps, from the consider- 
ations presented by Nelson in the opening sentences of the 
Memorandum, and from the great number of ships he then 
hoped to have. There were precedents for such a formation, 
in the practice of the day ; but, as far as recalled by the 
author, they were the advanced guards, the skirmish line, of 
the fleet, not, as in this case, essentially a reserve. In 
Nelson's present thought, the employment of this force would 
be, not antecedent to, but consequent upon, the particular 
indications of the day. Probably they would not be held back 
as long — for as distinct indications — as in the case of an 
army's reserve ; but nevertheless, the chief object of their 
separate organization was to redress, at the moment, the un- 
foreseen developments of a battle, whether at the instant of 
engagement or during its subsequent progress. The unfortu- 
nate Villeneuve, who commanded the allies, an accomplished 
though irresolute seaman, had adopted a similar arrangement, 
placing twelve detached ships under his colleague Gravina ; 
but, with sailing vessels, the effective use of such a force 
depended largely upon the windward position, which the allies 
did not have. If placed to leeward of a lee line, it Avas in the 
power of the assailant to throw them out of action altogether ; 
if to windward, to attack them separately ; therefore at Tra- 
falgar Villeneuve ordered them back into the line. . Nelson like- 
wise then embodied his reserve in the two columns of attack, 
because he had fewer vessels than he expected, and because 
the light wind forbade the wasting of time in evolutionary 
refinements. The incident of the simultaneous adoption of 
the same provision by the two opposing admirals, however, is 
interesting as indicative of the progress of naval thought, 
though still hampered by the uncertainties of the motive 
power. 

The second of these Orders, that of October 9, is memorable, 
not only for the sagacity and comprehensiveness of its general 
dispositions, but even more for the magnanimous confidence 
with which the details of execution were freely intrusted to 
those upon whom they had to fall. It was evidently drawn 



702 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



up in the first instauce for Collingwood only ; the word 
" your " in the original draught having been struck out, and 
"second ill command," substituted. The comparison already 
made between it and its predecessor of May, may not 
uninstructively be followed by a study of the ditfereuce in 
details between itself and the execution it actually received 
at the Battle of Trafalgar. To aid this purpose the author 
has traced, in marginal notes, the succession of the leading 
ideas. 

After a statement of General Considerations, and a frank 
attribution of full powers to the second in command for 
carrying out his part, Nelson lays down the manner of Attack 
from to Leeward. This condition not obtaining at Trafalgar, 
the plan cannot be contrasted with the performance of that 
day. Upon this follows a luminous enunciation of the general 
idea, namely, Collingwood's engaging the twelve rear ships, 
which underlies the method prescribed for each attack — 
from to leeward and to windward. Of the latter Kelson 
fortunately gives an outline diagram, which illustrates the 
picture before his own mind, facilitating our comprehen- 
sion of his probable expectations and allowing a comparison 
between them and the event as it actually occurred. It is 
not to the discredit, but greatly to the credit, of his concep- 
tion, that it was susceptible of large modification in practice 
while retaining its characteristic idea. 

Looking at his diagram,^ and following his words, it will 
be seen that the British lines are not formed perpendicularly 
to that of the enemy (as they were at Trafalgar), but parallel 
to it. Starting from this disposition, near the enemy and 
abreast his centre, the lee line of sixteen ships was to bear up 
together, and advance in line, not in column (as happened at 
Trafalgar) ; their object being the twelve rear ships of the 
enemy. This first move stands by itself; the action of the 
weather line, and of the reserve squadron still farther to 
windward, are held in suspense under the eye of the com- 
mander-in-chief, to take the direction which the latter shall 
prescribe as the struggle develops. The mere menace of such 
a force, just out of gunshot to windward, ^voixld be sufficient 

1 The author has introduced an arrow to show the direction of the wind as 
viewed by Nelson ; the arrow flying with the wind. 















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TACTICAL METHODS 703 



to prevent any extensive manoeuvre of the unengaged enemies. 
!Nelson doubtless had in mind tlie dispositions, more than a 
century old, of Tourville and De Euyter, by which a few ships, 
spaced to windward of an enemy's van, could check its 
tacking, because of the raking fire to which they would sub- 
ject it. Unquestionably, he would not have kept long in idle 
expectancy twenty-four ships, the number he had in mind ; 
but clearly also he proposed to hold them until he saw how 
things went with Collingwood. Thus much time would allow, 
granting the position he assumed and a reasonable breeze. 
His twenty-four to windward held an absolute check over 
the supposed thirty-four unengaged, of the enemy. 

The attack as planned, therefore, differed from that executed 
(1) in that the lee line was not to advance in column, but in line, 
thereby dispersing the enemy's fii-e, and avoiding the terrific 
concentration which crushed the leaders at Trafalgar ; and (2) 
in that the weather squadrons were not to attack simul- 
taneously with the lee, but after it had engaged, in order 
to permit the remedying of any mishap that might arise 
in delivering the crucial blow. In both these matters of 
detail the plan was better than the modification; but the 
latter was forced upon Nelson by conditions beyond his 
control. 

It will be observed that, when considering attacking from 
to leeward, he orders a simultaneous movement of the three 
British divisions, — lee, weather, and reserve ; for the obvious 
reason that if he held his own divisions in reserve to leeward 
he could not at all count upon bringing them into action at 
will ; and, moreover, such an attack would probably have to 
be in columns, and, if simultaneous, would be less liable to 
disaster than in succession, mutual support diverting the 
enemies' fire. In fact, the highest order of offensive combi- 
nation was only possible when having the advantage of the 
wind — fair, and enough of it. 

The plan upon which Trafalgar was to be fought, as above 
described and analyzed, was formed some time before 
leaving England, and it is not unreasonable to suppose 
that it was in fact a modification of the earlier idea, laid 
down during the chase to the West Indies. On the 10th 
of September, three days only before quitting Mertou, jSTelsou 



•704 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

called upou his old friend, Lord Sidmouth,^ who until recently 
had been Prime Minister. In the course of the interview he 
explained his intentions as regards the attack. " Rodney," 
he said, " broke the enemy's line in one place,- I will break it 
in two;" and with his linger he indicated upon a table the 
general character of the assault, to be made in two lines, led 
by himself and Collingwood. He felt confident, according to 
Sidmouth's narration, that he should capture either their van 
and centre or their centre and rear. It was of course out of 
his power to prevent the enemy inverting their order, by the 
simultaneous turning round of every ship, at the time of 
engagement, so that the attack intended for the rear should 
fall upon it become the van. Against this contingency he 
provided by the words, ''should the enemy wear together, 
still the twelve ships composing, in the first j^osition, the 
enemy's rear, are to be the object of attack of the lee line." 
Sidmouth did not commit his recollection of this incident to 
writing until many years later, and, not being a seaman, very 
likely failed to comprehend some of the details — there seems 
to the author to be in the story a confusion of what Nelson 
planned with what Nelson did ; but a great conception is 
largely independent of details, and the essential features of 
Trafalgar are in Sidmouth's account. The idea was doubtless 
imj)arted also to the family circle at Mertou, where probably 
the expression, " Nelson touch," originated. It occurs chiefly, 
if not wholly, in his letters to Lady Hamilton, to whom, some 
days before reaching the fleet, he wrote, "I am anxious to 
join, for it would add to my grief if any other man was to 
give them the Nelson touch, which we say is warranted never 
to fail ; " but there may be a quaint allusion to it in the motto 
he told Rose he had adopted : "Touch and Take." 

When Nelson left England, he was intrusted by the First 
Lord with the delicate and unpleasant mission of communi- 
cating to Sir Robert Calder the dissatisfaction of the Govern- 
ment with his conduct, in the encounter with the allied fleets 
the previous July ; especially for failing to keep touch with 

1 Formerly Mr. Addington, who was at the head of the Government during 
tlie Copenhagen expedition. 

2 This was a mistake on Nelson's ])art. Rodney's fleet actually, though 
accidentally, broke through De Grasse's order in two (if not three) places. 



THE C ALDER INCIDENT 705 

them and bring them again to action. The national outcry 
was too strong to be disregarded, nor is it probable that the 
Admiralty took a more lenient view of the matter. At all 
events, an inquiry was inevitable, and the authorities seem to 
have felt that it was a favor to Calder to permit him to ask 
for the Court which in any case must be ordered. ''I did not 
fail," wrote iSTelson to Barham, "immediately on my arrival, 
to deliver your message to Sir Eobert Calder ; and it will 
give your Lordship pleasure to find, as it has me, that an in- 
quiry is what the Vice-Admiral wishes, and that he had written 
to you by the Nautilus, which I detained, to say so. Sir 
Robert thinks that he can clearly prove, that it was not in his 
power to bring the combined squadrons again to battle." 

Nelson felt a profound sympathy for the unfortunate officer, 
pursued by the undiscriminating and ignorant fury of popular 
clamor, the extent and intensity of which he had had oppor- 
tunity to realize when in England. "While he probably did 
not look for so tragic an issue, the execution of Byng under a 
similar odium and a similar charge, although expressly cleared 
of cowardice and disaffection, was still fresh in the naval 
mind. " Sir Robert has an ordeal to pass through," he wrote 
Collingwood, " which he little expects." His own opinion 
upon the case seems to have undergone some modification, 
since the generous outburst with which he at first deprecated 
the prejudgment of a disappointed and frightened people ; 
nor could it well fail, as details became known to him, that 
he should pass a silent censure upon proceedings, which con- 
travened alike his inward professional convictions, and his 
expressed purposes of action for a similar contingency. " I 
have had, as you will believe, a very distressing scene with 
poor Sir Robert Calder," he told Lady Hamilton. "He has 
wrote home to beg an inquiry, feeling confident that he can 
fully justify himself. I sincerely hope he may, but — I have 
given him the advice as to my dearest friend. He is in ad- 
versity, and if he ever has been my enemy, he now feels the 
pang of it, and finds me one of his best friends." " Sir Robert 
Calder," he wrote to another correspondent, "has just left us 
to stand his trial, which I think of a very serious nature." 
Nelson was obliged to detain him until reinforcements arrived 
from England, because Calder Avas unwilling to undergo the 

45 



706 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

apparent humiliation of leaving his flagship under charges, 
and she could not yet be spared. It was not the least of this 
unlucky man's misfortunes that he left the fleet just a week 
before the battle, where his conduct would undoubtedly have 
redeemed whatever of errors he may have committed. One 
of the last remarks Nelson made before the action began, was, 
" Hardy, what would poor Sir Robert Calder give to be with 
us now ! " 

Calder's reluctance to quit his flagship, and the keen sen- 
sitiveness with which he expressed his feelings, drew from 
Nelson a concession he knew to be wrong, but which is too 
characteristic, both in the act itself and in his own account of 
it, to be omitted. "Sir Robert felt so much," he wrote to the 
First Lord, " even at the idea of being removed from his own 
ship which he commanded, in the face of the fleet, that I 
much fear I shall incur the censure of the Board of Admiralty, 
without your Lordship's influence with the members of it. 
I may be thought wrong, as an oflicer, to disobey the orders 
of the Admiralty, by not insisting on Sir Robert Calder's quit- 
ting the Prince of Wales for the Dreadnought, and for part- 
ing with a 90-gun ship, before the force arrives which their 
Lordships have judged necessary; but I trust that I shall be 
considered to have done right as a man, and to a brother 
oflicer in afiliction — my heart could not stand it, and so the 
thing must rest. I shall submit to the wisdom of the Board 
to censure me or not, as to them may seem best for the Ser- 
vice; I shall bow with all due respect to their decision." 

From the military point of view this step was indefensible, 
but it is in singular keeping with Nelson's kindness of heart, 
his generosity of temper, and with a certain recklessness 
of consequences, — when supported by inward conviction of 
right, or swayed by natural impulses, — which formed no 
small part of his greatness as a warrior. "Numbers only 
can annihilate ; " yet to spare the feelings of an unhappy man, 
whom he believed to have been his enemy, he parted with one 
of the best units from his numbers, although, even with her 
present, he was inferior to the allies. He felt keenly, how- 
ever, the responsibility he assumed, not only towards the 
Admiralty, but towards his own success and reputation. At 
one time he seems, with unusual vacillation, even to have 



DISPOSITION OF THE FLEET 707 

returned upon his decision, and to have notified Calder that 
the ship could not be spared ; for on the 12th of October the 
latter wrote him : " The contents of your Lordship's letter 
have cut me to the soul. If I am to be turned out of my 
ship, after all that has passed, I have only to request I may 
be allowed to take my Captain, and such officers as I find 
necessary for the justification of my conduct as an officer, 
and that I may be permitted to go without a moment's 
further loss of time. My heart is broken." This appeal 
broke down all Nelson's power of resistance. He deprived 
himself on the eve of battle of a first-rate ship, taking only 
the precaution of sending his entire correspondence with 
Calder, public and private, to explain his course, though 
scarcely to justify it. The significance of this act is enhanced 
by the known importance which he himself attached to the 
presence or absence of even a third-rate ship-of-the-line. 
When the expedition to the Baltic was on the eve of starting, 
a seventy-four went aground, in leaving the Downs. Lieuten- 
ant Layman having been conspicuously instrumental in get- 
ting her off, Nelson told him that he had in consequence 
Avritten in his favor to the Admiralty ; and upon Layman's 
remarking that what he had done scarcely deserved so much, 
the admiral replied, " I think differently, the loss of one liue- 
of-battle ship might be the loss of a victory." 

When Nelson joined the fleet, he found it stationed some 
fifteen to twenty miles from Cadiz. He soon moved the main 
body to fifty miles west of the port. " It is desirable," he 
admitted, "to be well up in easterly winds, but I must guard 
against being caught with a westerly wind near Cadiz, as a 
fleet of ships witli so many three-deckers would inevitably 
be forced into the Straits, and then Cadiz would be perfectly 
free for the enemy to come out with a westerly wind, as they 
served Lord Keith in the late war." The memory of his 
weary beat out of the Mediterranean the previous April, 
against wind and current, remained vividly in his mind ; and 
he feared also that the willingness of the enemy to come out, 
which was his great object, would be much cooled by the cer- 
tainty that his fleet could not be avoided, and by seeing such 
additions as it might receive. " I think we are near enough," 
he wrote Collingwood, '' for the weather if it is fine, the wind 



•708 TfiE LIFE OF NELSON 

serves, and we are in sight, they will never move." " I rely 
on you," he tells Blackwood, "that we can't miss getting 
hold of them, and I will give them such a shaking as they 
never yet experienced ; at least I will lay down my life in the 
attempt." An advanced squadron of fast-sailing seventy- 
fours was thrown out ten or twelve miles east of the fleet, 
through which daily signals could be exchanged with Black- 
wood's squadron of frigates, that cruised day and night close 
to the harbor's mouth. This disposition received a farther 
development after the 10th of October, when the combined 
fleets shifted from the inner harbor to the Bay of Cadiz, and 
gave other tokens of a speedy start. On the 14th of the 
month he made the following entry in his diary : *' Enemy at 
the harbour's mouth. Placed Defence and Agamemnon from 
seven to ten leagues west of Cadiz, and Mars and Colossus 
five leagues east of fleet [that is, under way between the 
fleet and the former group], whose station is from fifteen to 
twenty leagues west of Cadiz ; and by this chain I hope to 
have constant communication with the frigates off Cadiz." 
To the captain of the '' Defence " he wrote that it was possi- 
ble the enemy might try to drive off the frigate squadron, 
in order to facilitate their own evasion ; in which case the 
inner ships-of-the-line would be at hand to resist the attempt. 
Despite these careful dispositions, his mind was still ill at 
ease lest the enemy might escape undetected. He never had 
frigates enough to make the result as sure as it ought to be, 
where such vast issues were at stake. While eight at least 
were needed to be always with the fleet before Cadiz, he had 
but five; and to maintain even so many it was necessary to 
cut short other services and essential stations. This deficiency 
he urged upon the Government still more than he did the 
inadequacy of the line-of-batfcle force ; for his fear of the 
enemy eluding him was greater than that of a conflict with 
superior numbers. As regards the latter contingency, he 
wrote to Lord Barham that, if the enemy came out, he would 
immediately bring them to battle ; ''but, although I should 
not doubt of spoiling any voyage they might attempt, yet I 
hope for the arrival of the ships from England, that as an 
enemy's fleet they may be annihilated." On the other hand, 
" the last fleet was lost to me for want of frigates." Besides 



COMPOSURE OF MIND 709 



his own direct representations, he pressed. Rose to obtain an 
intimation to the Admiralty from the Prime Minister, that the 
latter was personally solicitous that more small cruisers should 
be supplied. Both Collingwood and Nelson believed the allies 
bound to the Mediterranean ; but in this they might be mis- 
taken, and as the real object might be again the West Indies, 
lookouts should be placed off Cape Bianco on the coast of 
Africa, and off the Salvages,^ both which he knew had been 
sighted by Villeneuve, in the outward voyage of the previous 
spring. 

To his concern about the immediate situation before Cadiz 
were added the universal cares of the Mediterranean, with all 
parts of which he renewed his correspondence, occupying his 
active mind with provisions for forwarding the cause of Great 
Britain and her allies. Under his many anxieties, however, 
he preserved his buoyant, resolute temper, not worrying over 
possible happenings against which he was unable to provide. 
" The force is at present not so large as might be wished," he 
writes to Ball, " but I will do my best with it ; they will give 
me more when they can, and I am not come forth to find 
difhculties, but to remove them." " Your Lordship may 
depend upon my exertions," he tells Barham. The possibility 
that he himself might fall was, as always, present to his 
thoughts, and never did life mean more to him than it now 
did ; yet, as the twilight deepened, and the realization of 
danger passed gradually into a presentiment of death, he 
faced the prospect without gloom — steadfast still in mind. 
"Let the battle be when it may, it will never have been sur- 
passed. My shattered frame, if I survive that day, will 
require rest, and that is all I shall ask for. If I fall on such 
a glorious occasion, it shall be my pride to ta,ke care that my 
friends shall not blush for me. These things are in the 
hands of a wise and just Providence, and His will be done! 
I have got some trifle, thank God, to leave those I hold most 
dear, and I have taken care not to neglect it. Do not think I 
am low-spirited on this account, or fancy anything is to happen 
to me ; quite the contrary — my mind is calm, and I have only 
to think of destroying our inveterate foe." 

Of these days of preoccupation, while in hourly expectation 
1 A desert group of small islands between Madeira and the Canaries. 



710 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of the issue, overchai'ged with official anxieties, and facing, 
however fearlessly, a growing impression that he himself 
would not survive the conflict for which he longed, an anecdote 
has been transmitted that shows again how to the end, and 
whatever his personal cares, his quick sympathy went out to 
men of all classes. Word had been passed through the fleet 
that a mail was about to start for England, which would not 
improbably be the last opportunity of writing home before the 
enemy came forth. The letters had been collected as usual, 
the bags were all on board the departing vessel, and she her- 
self, under full sail, had got already some distance away, 
when Nelson saw a midshipman come up and speak to Lieu- 
tenant Pasco, the signal officer, who, upon hearing what was 
said, stamped his foot in evident vexation, and uttered an 
exclamation. The admiral, of whose nearness Pasco was not 
aware, called him, and asked what was the matter. " Nothing 
that need trouble your Lordship," was the reply. ''You are 
not the man to lose your temper for nothing," rejoined Nelson. 
"What was it ?" "Well, if you must know, my Lord, I will 
tell you. You see that cockswain," pointing to one of the 
most active of the petty officers ; " we have not a better man 
on board the Victory and the message which put me out was 
this. I was told that he was so busy receiving and getting off 
the mail-bags, that he forgot to drop his own letter to his wife 
into one of them, and he has just discovered it in his pocket." 
"Hoist a signal to bring her back," was Nelson's instant 
command ; " who knows that he may not fall in action to-mor- 
row. His letter shall go with the rest," — and the despatch 
vessel was brought back for that alone. ^ In telling the story, 
Pasco used to say it was no wonder that the common sailors 
idolized Nelson, since he was always thinking about them, 
and won their hearts by showing his own. 

In addition to the combined fleets in Cadiz, which numbered 
thirty-six of the line, besides frigates, the enemy had a half- 
dozen of the line in Cartagena, Avhich showed signs of moving, 
and whose junction must be prevented, if possible. Partly 
for this reason, partly because it was necessary to renew the 
water of the ships, Nelson sent a detachment of six of the 

1 The author is indebted for this reminiscence to Mr. Stuart J. Eeid, who 
received it from Pasco's son, also an officer in the Navy. 



AWAITING THE ENEMY'S SAILING 711 

line to Gibraltar and Tetuan, immediately after he took charge. 
To the junior admiral who commanded it, and who lamented 
that they might lose their share in the expected battle, he 
replied : '' I have no other means of keeping my fleet complete 
in provisions and water. The enemy will come out, and we 
shall fight them ; but there will be time for you to get back 
first." They did not, however, return as thus expected, a 
misadventure which was chiefly due to their having to guard a 
convoy past Cartagena, — a potent illustration of the influence 
exerted by a powerful squadron, judiciously placed on the 
flank of au important trade route, or line of communication ; 
but even had they rejoined, six others were told off to leave at 
once in turn. Nelson did not dare to take the fleet in mass 
to Tetuan, as he used to Madalena ; for he could never be sure 
of getting out of the Straits when he wished, or when the 
enemy moved. Thus his fleet was reduced, by both adminis- 
trative and strategic exigencies, to twenty -three ships-of-the- 
line. Fortunately, four more joined before the battle, raising 
the numbers actually engaged to twenty-seven. It will be 
recognized that Gaidar's ninety-gun ship was no small loss. 

Such were the general dispositions in which the sailing of 
the enemy was awaited. A main body of eighteen to twenty, 
fifty miles west of Cadiz, a frigate squadron close in to the 
harbor, and two groups of ships-of-the-line extended between 
these extremes. With a westerly wind, approach to the port 
would be easy for all ; with an easterly, Nelson wrote to 
Blackwood, he would habitually beat up for Cadiz, never going 
north of the port. His whereabouts in case of thick weather 
was thus always known. He notified Collingwood and his 
other subordinates, that if the enemy came out, he should 
stand for Cape Spartel, the African outpost of the Straits, to 
bar the entrance of the allies to the Mediterranean. Signals 
were arranged, precise, yet not so elaborate as to tend to con- 
fusion, by which the departure and general direction of the 
enemy could be continually transmitted, from the furthest 
lookouts to the main body, by night as by day. 

On the 13th of October his old ship, the " Agamemnon," 
joined the fleet. She was commanded by Sir Edward Berry, 
who had been first lieutenant in her with Nelson, had accom- 
panied him in boarding the " San Nicolas " and " San Josef " 



712 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

at St. Vincent, and was afterwards his flag-captain at the Nile. 
When her approach was reported to the admiral, he exclaimed 
gleefully, " Here comes Berry ! Now we shall have a battle j " 
for Berry, having been in more fleet actions than any captain 
in the British Navy/ had a proverbial reputation for such 
luck. The event did not belie the prediction. Five days 
later, on the 18th of the month, Nelson noted in his diary : 
" Fine weather, wind easterly ; the combined fleets cannot 
have finer weather to put to sea; " and the following morning, 
at half-past nine, the signal, repeated from masthead to mast- 
head, from the inshore frigates to their commander-in-chief 
fifty miles at sea, announced that the long-expected battle 
was at hand — for " The Enemy are coming out of port." 

^ Besides three of the battles associated with Nelson's name — St. Vincent, 
the Nile, and Trafalgar — Berry as a midshipman had been in the five fleet 
actions between Sufiren and Hughes, in the East Indies, in 1782 and 1783. 
(" The Nelson Memorial," by John Knox Laughton, pp. 83, 284.) 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Trafalgar. — The Death of Nelson. 
October 19-21, 1805. Age, 47. 

CONTEARY to the general policy that for many years 
had governed the naval undertakings of France and 
Spain, the combined fleets put to sea on the 19th of October, 
1805, with the fixed purpose of daring the hazard of battle, 
which they could scarcely expect to avoid. They numbered 
thirty-three ships-of-the-line, eighteen French and fifteen 
Spanish, and were accompanied by five frigates and two brigs, 
all of which were French. This great force in its aggregate 
was one. There were not two separate entities, a French fleet 
and a Spanish fleet, acting in concert, as is often the case in 
alliances. Whatever the administrative arrangements, for 
cruising and for battle the vessels of the two nations were 
blended in a single mass, at the head of which was the French 
admiral, just as the general direction of the naval campaign 
was in the hands of the French Emperor alone. The com- 
mander-in-chief was Vice-Admiral Villeneuve, the same that 
Nelson recently had pursued to the West Indies and back to 
Europe. The commander of the Spanish contingent, Vice- 
Admiral Gravina, was less his colleague than his subordinate. 
There were also flying in the combined fleet the flags of four 
junior admirals, two French and two Spanish, and the broad 
pendants of several commodores. 

In the allied force there were four three-decked ships, of 
from one hundred to one hundred and thirty guns, all Spanish, 
of which one, the "Santisima Trinidad," was the largest 
vessel then afloat. Among Nelson's twenty-seven there were 
seven three-deckers, of ninety-eight to one hundred guns ; but 
in the lower rates the British were at a disadvantage, having 
but one eighty-gun ship and three sixty-fours, whereas the 
allies had six of the former and only one of the latter. All 
the other vessels of the line-of-battle were seventy-fours, the 
normal medium type, upon Avhich the experience of most 



714 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

navies of that day had fixed, as best fitted for the general pur- 
poses of fleet warfare. Where more tonnage and heavier bat- 
teries were put into single ships, it was simply for the purpose 
of reinforcing the critical points of an order of battle ; an aim 
that could not be as effectively attained by the combination of 
tAvo ships, under two captains. 

As Kelson said in his celebrated order, so large a body as 
thirty -three heavy vessels is not easily handled, even at sea ; 
and leaving port with them is an operation yet more difficult. 
Consequently, the movement which began soon after daylight 
on the 19th was not completed that day. Owing to the fall- 
ing of the wind, only twelve ships got fairly clear of the bay, 
outside of which they lay becalmed. The following morning 
the attempt was resumed, and by two or three o'clock in the 
afternoon of the 20th the whole combined fleet was united, and 
standing with a fresh southwest wind to the northward and 
westward, to gain room to windward for entering the Straits. 

As has been said, the movement that Blackwood recognized 
at 7 A. M. of the 19th was communicated to the admiral at 
half-past nine. According to his announced plan, to cut the 
enemy off from the Mediterranean, he at once made signal for 
a General Chase to the southeast, — towards Cape Spartel, — 
and the fleet moved off in that direction with a light southerly 
wind. At noon Nelson sat down in his cabin to begin his 
last letter to Lady Hamilton. The words then written he 
signed, as though conscious that no opportunity to continue 
might offer ; nor is it difficult to trace that some such thought 
was then uppermost in his mind, and sought expression in the 
tenderness of farewell. The following day, however, he added 
a few lines, in which the dominant note was fear that the 
enemy might again elude him, by returning into port; an 
apprehension that expelled the previous haunting sense of 
finality. There he laid down the pen, never again to address 
her directly. The letter, thus abruptly closed by death, was 
found open and unsigned upon his desk after the battle. 

Victory, October 19tli, 1805, Noon. 
Cadiz, E. S. E., 16 Leagues. 

My dearest beloved Emma, the dear friend of my bosom. The 
signal has been made that the Enemy's Combined Fleet axe coming 



< 



LAST LETTER TO LADY HAMILTON 715 



out of Port. We have very little wind, so that I have no hopes of 
seeing them before to-morrow. May the God of Battles crown my 
endeavours with success ; at all events, I will take care that my name 
shall ever be most dear to you and Horatia, both of whom I love as 
much as my own life. And as my last writing before the Battle 
w-ill be to you, so I hope in God that I shall live to finish ray letter 
after the Battle. May Heaven bless you prays your 

Nelson and Bronte. 

October 20th. 
In the morning, we were close to the Mouth of the Straits, but the 
wind had not come far enough to the Westward to allow the Combined 
Fleets to weather the Shoals off Trafalgar ; but they were counted as 
far as forty Sail of Ships of 'W^ar, which I suppose to be thirty-four 
of the Line, and six Frigates. A group of them was seen off the 
Lighthouse of Cadiz this morning, but it blows so very fresh and 
thick weather, that I rather believe they will go into the Harbour 
before night. ]\Iay God Almighty give us success over these fellows, 
and enable us to get a Peace. 

He w-rote the same day to his daughter, addressing the 
letter to Miss Horatia Nelson Thompson,^ by which name 
she had hitherto been known. In the Codicil to his Will, 
signed on the morning of the 21st, a few hours before the 
battle, he called her his adopted daughter, and desired that 
she would in future use the name of Nelson only. 

Victory, October 19th, 1805. 
My dearest Angel, — I was made happy by the pleasure of 
receiving your letter of September 19th, and I rejoice to hear that you 
are so very good a girl, and love my dear Lady Hamilton, wdio most 
dearly loves you. Give her a kiss for me. The Combined Fleets 
of the Enemy are now reported to be coming out of Cadiz; and 
therefore I answer your letter, my dearest Horatia, to mark to you 
that you are ever uppermost in my thoughts. I shall be sure of 
your prayers for my safety, conquest, and speedy return to dear 
Merton, and our dearest good Lady Hamilton. Be a good girl, mind 
what Miss Connor says to you. Receive, my dearest Horatia, the 
affectionate parental blessing of your Father, 

Nelson and Bronte. 

^ The name Thompson was s])elled by Nelson indifferently with or without 
the " p," which, as Nicolas observes, confirms the belief that it was fictitious. 
The fact is singular ; foi% from a chance remark of his, it appears that he 
meant it to be Thomson. (Morrison, Letter No. 569.) 



716 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



The 20th of October opened with fresh breezes from south- 
southwest and heavy rains. At daybreak the British fleet 
was near the Straits' mouth, between Capes Trafalgar and 
Spartel, unable to see anything, but certain that, with the 
existing winds, the enemy could not have anticipated it there. 
Blackwood's frigates, out of sight to the northward, Avere 
dogging the path of the allies, of whose general j^osition they 
were certain, although the thick weather hid them from 
observation. At 7 a. m. the frigate •' Phoebe " signalled to 
Nelson that the enemy bore north. With the wind as it was, 
and considering the position of the land, the}' must be stand- 
ing to the northwest, so that the British fleet wore and 
steered the same course, keeping parallel to the enemy and 
spreading lookouts in their direction. Soon after noon, the 
weather clearing, Blackwood saw the combined fleets where he 
believed them to be, under low sail, and so close that the 
" Euryalus " went about immediately. At 1 p. m. he left the 
squadron in temporary charge of a junior captain, and with 
his own ship kept away south to speak the admiral. At two 
he sighted the main bod}'-, and at 3.20 was near enough to 
send the telegraphic message, "The enemy appears deter- 
mined to push to the westward." " That," wrote Nelson in 
his diary, " they shall not do, if in the power of Nelson and 
Bronte to prevent them," and he telegraphed back, •' I rely 
upon your keeping sight of the enemy." The frigates and look- 
out ships, he noted in his journal, had so far discharged their 
duties most admirably, informing him promptly of all the 
hostile movements ; he was justified therefore in the con- 
fidence that they would do as well in the night now 
approaching. 

While Blackwood was communicating, Nelson himself was 
much of the time on the " Victory's " poop. Seeing there a 
number of midshipmen assembled, he observed to them, 
"This day or to-morrow will be a fortunate one for you, 
young gentlemen," alluding to their prospect of promotion 
after a successful battle. The same day at dinner, he said to 
some of the company, " To-morrow I will do that which will 
give you younger gentlemen something to talk and think 
about for the rest of your lives, but I shall not live to know 
about it myself ; " and he added that he expected to capture 



MOVEMENTS OF THE FLEETS 717 

twenty to twenty-two of the hostile fleet.^ It may be inferred 
from this remark that by the dinner hour, between three and 
five, he had become satisfied that the enemy either would not, 
or could not, return into port, according to the fear he had 
expressed to Lady Hamilton, and that a battle therefore was 
certain. The letter to her, from its mention of the weather 
as thick, must have been written in the forenoon. His 
expectation that the morrow would prove the decisive day 
was reinforced by one of those prepossessions for coincidences, 
half jesting, half serious, which are natural to men, but fall 
too far short of conviction to be called superstitious. On the 
21st of October, 1757, his uncle Maurice Suckling had com- 
manded one of three ships-of-the-line which had beaten ofE a 
superior force. Nelson had several times said to Captain 
Hardy and Dr. Scott, ''The 21st will be our day ; " and on the 
morning of the battle, when the prediction was approaching 
fulfilment, he again remarked that the 21st of October was 
the happiest day in the year fpv his family ; but he mentioned 
no reason other than that just given. 

The main bodies of the contending navies did not come in 
sight of each other during the 20th ; the British lookout 
frigates, between the two, and three or four miles from the 
allied line, could see their own fleet only from the masthead. 
At about 2 p. M., soon after the weather cleared, the wind 
shifted to west-northwest, taking the ships aback. After 
filling their sails again to the new wind, as this was now fair 
for their approach to the Straits' mouth, the combined fleets 
wore, and headed to the southward. The British remaining 
on the same tack as before, — the port, — stood to the north- 
ward until 8 p. M., when they also wore to the southwest ; 
but this interval of steering in nearly opposite directions 
changed the relative bearings. At midnight, by the log of 
Blackwood's frigates, the enemy stretched along the eastern 
horizon, while the British bore southwest; the space between 
the two being ten miles. The " Euryalus," three miles from 
the allies, saw the loom of the lights of her own fleet. Still 
fearful lest the view of his ships should shake the enemy's 

^ The author is indebted for this anecdote to Mr. Edgar Goble, of Farehani, 
Hants, whose father, Thomas Goble, then secretary to Captain Hardy, was 
present at the table. 



718 THE LIFE OF IsELSON 

purpose, Nelson was careful not to lessen this distance ; the 
more so because the British, having the wind, could attack 
when they pleased, provided the enemy by continuing to the 
southward deprived themselves of the power to regain Cadiz. 
Two British frigates were directed to keep them in sight 
during the night, reporting their movements to two others 
Avho w^ere stationed a little farther from them, whence a chain 
of line-of-battle ships communicated with the " Victory." 
Thus, throughout the dark hours, signal lights and guns flashed 
across the waters to Nelson instantaneous information of every 
noteworthy occurrence in the hostile order. 

Since the morning of the 19th, the weather, fine for some 
days previous, had become unsettled, working up for the 
southwest gale which Avrought so much damage among the 
victims of the fight. As the night of the 20th advanced, 
the wind fell, and at midnight there were only light westerly 
breezes, inclining to calm. The same conditions continued 
at dawn, and throughout the day of the 21st until after the 
battle ; but there was also a great swell from the westward, 
the precursor of a storm. At 4 A. m. the British fleet again 
wore, and was standing northeast when the day broke. 

After leaving Cadiz, in order to avoid separations during 
the night, or in thick weather, the combined fleets had been 
disposed in five columns, a formation whose compactness, 
though not suited to an engagement, was less liable to strag- 
gling than a single long .line, and brought all parts more di- 
rectly under the control of tlie commander-in-chief at the 
centre. Of the five, the two to windward, of six ships each, 
constituted a reserve, similar to Nelson's proposed detachment 
of eight. It was commanded by Admiral Gravina, and Avas 
intended to reinforce such part of the battle as should appear 
to require it ; an object for which the windward position was 
of the utmost moment, as it was for all naval initiative in that 
day. This advantage the allies did not have on the morning 
of Trafalgar. When Villeneuve, therefore, formed the line 
of battle, these twelve ships were at once incorporated with 
it, taking the lead of their order as it stood to the southward, 
with the wind at west-northwest, — a long column stretching 
over five miles of sea from end to end. 

In a general sense, then, it may be said that, when daylight 



THE BRITISH ORDER OF ATTACK 719 

showed the enemies to each other, the British fleet was head- 
ing to the northward, and that of the allies to the southward ; 
the latter being ten or twelve miles east of their opponents. 
In the far distance, Cape Trafalgar, from which the battle 
takes its name, was just visible against the eastern sky. At 
twenty minutes before seven Nelson made in quick succession 
the signals, "To form the order of sailing," — which by his 
previous instructions was to be the order of battle, — and 
" To prepare for battle." Ten minutes later followed the 
command to " Bear up," the " Victory " setting the example 
by at once altering her course for the enemy. Collingwood 
did the same, and the ships of the two divisions fell into the 
Avake of their leaders as best they could, for the light wind 
afforded neither the means nor the time for refinements in 
manoeuvring. Fourteen ships followed the '' Eoyal Sover- 
eign," which bore Collingwood's flag, while the remaining 
twelve gathered in Nelson's division behind the "Victory."^ 
The two columns steered east, about a mile apart, that of 
Nelson being to the northward ; from which circumstance, 
the wind being west-northwest, it has been called commonly 
the weather line. 

Thus, as Ivanhoe, at the instant of encounter in the lists, 
shifted his lance from the shield to the casque of the Templar, 
Nelson, at the moment of engaging, changed the details of 
his plan, and substituted an attack in two columns, simul- 
taneously made, for the charge of Collingwood's division, in 
line and in superior numbers, upon the enemy's flank ; to be 
followed, more or less quickly, according to indications, by 
such movement of his own division as might seem advisable. 
It will be observed, however, that the order of sailing remained 
the order of battle, — probably, although it is not so stated, 
the fleet was already thus disposed when the signal was made, 
needing only rectification after the derangements incident to 
darkness, — and further, that the general direction of attack 
continued the same, Collingwood guiding his column upon the 
enemy's southern flank, while Nelson pointed a few ships 

1 One sixty-four, the "Africa," had separated to the northward during the 
night, and joined in the buttle by ^lassing alone along the enemy's line, much 
of the time under fire. She belonged, therefore, to Nelson's column, and 
co-operated with it during the day. 



720 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

north of their centre. In this way was preserved the com- 
prehensive aim which underlay the particular dispositions of 
his famous order : '' The whole impression of the British fleet 
must be to overpower from two or three ships ahead of their 
commander-in-chief, supposed to be in the Centre, to the Rear 
of their fleet." The northern flank of the allies — ten or a 
dozen ships — was consequently left unengaged, unless by 
their own initiative they came promptly into action ; which, 
it may be added, they did not do until after the battle was 
decided. 

When the development of the British movement was recog- 
nized by Villeneuve, he saw that fighting was inevitable ; and, 
wishing to keep Cadiz, then twenty miles to the northward 
and eastward, under his lee, he ordered the combined fleets 
to wear together.^ The scanty wind which embarrassed the 
British impeded this manoeuvre also, so that it was not com- 
pleted till near ten o'clock. Xelson, however, noted its begin- 
ning at seven, and with grave concern ; for not only would it 
put the allies nearer their port, as it was intended to do, but 
it would cause vessels crippled in the action to find to leeward 
of them, during the gale which he foresaw, the dangerous 
shoals off Trafalgar instead of the open refuge of the Straits. 
The appreciation of the peril thus entailed led him to make 
a signal for all the ships to be prepared to anchor after the 
battle, for it was not to be hoped that the spars of many of 
them would be in a condition to bear sail. The result of the 
allied movement was to invert their order. Their ships, which 
had been steering south, now all headed north ; the van 
became the rear ; Gravina, who had been leading the column, 
was in the rear ship ; and it was upon this rear, but still the 
southern flank of the hostile array, that the weight of Col- 
lingwood's attack was to fall. 

Soon after daylight Nelson, who, according to his custom, 
was already ujd and dressed, had gone on deck. He wore as 

^ Nelson in his journal wrote: "The enemy wearing in succession." As 
the allies' order was reversed, however, it is evident that he meant merely 
that the ships wore one after tlie other, from rear to van, but in their respec- 
tive stations, each waiting till the one astern had, to use the old phrase, 
"marked her manoeuvre," — a precaution intended to prevent collisions, 
though it necessarily extended the line. 



•a 


CI A 





+6« 







6.- 



\ "'6 

A 





WIND *--^ W.N.W. .j^fl 

.♦6 



THE ATTACK AT TRAFALGAR 

OCTOBER 2.1 I805 

FIVE MINUTES PAST NOON 

iV- BRITISH. 27 5HIP5 

O FRENCH, 18 



, 33 5H1P5 
SPANISH,I5 ' 

THE FRENCH AND SPANISH SHIPS MARKED+ WERE TAKEN OR DESTROYED IN 
THE ACTION. 

REFERENCES 

A.SANTA ANA. ALAVA'S FLAG-SHIP |S. ROYAL SOVEREIGN COLLINQWOOD'S FUQ-SHIP 

B.BUCENTAURE VILLENEUVE'5 •• IT.SAMTISIMA TRINIDAD 

P.PRINCIPE OE ASTURIAS.ORAVINA'S" V. VICTORY. NELSONS FLAC-SMIP 

R.REDOUTABLE I 



NELSON'S ANTICIPATIONS 721 

usual his admiral's frock coat, on the left breast of which 
were stitched the stars of four different Orders that he always 
bore. It was noticed that he did not wear his sword at Tra- 
falgar, although it lay ready for him on the cabin table ; and 
it is supposed he forgot to call for it, as this was the only 
instance in which he was known not to carry it when engaged. 
At about six o'clock he summoned Captain Blackwood on 
board the " Victory." This officer had had a hard fag during 
the past forty-eight hours, dogging the enemy's movements 
through darkness and mist ; but that task was over, and his 
ambition now was to get command of one of two seventy-fours, 
whose captains had gone home with Calder to give evidence 
at his trial. " My signal just made on board the Victory," he 
wrote to his wife. "I hope to order me to a vacant line-of- 
battle ship." Nelson's purpose, however, as far as stated by 
Blackwood, was simply to thank him for the successful efforts 
of the past two days, and to have him by his side till the flag- 
ship came under fire, in order to receive final and precise 
instructions, as the situation developed, for the conduct of the 
frigates during and after the battle. To Blackwood's con- 
gratulations upon the approach of the moment that he had, 
to use his own word, panted for, he replied : " I mean to-day 
to bleed the captains of the frigates, as I shall keep you on 
board to the very last moment." 

Blackwood found him in good but very calm spirits, pre- 
occupied with the movements of the allies, and the probable 
results of his own plan of attack. He frequently asked, 
" What would you consider a victory ? " Blackwood answered : 
" Considering the handsome way in which the battle is offered 
by the enemy, their apparent determination for a fair trial of 
strength, and the proximity of the land, I think if fourteen 
ships are captured, it will be a glorious result." Nelson's 
constant reply was that he would not be satisfied with any- 
thing short of twenty. He admitted, however, that the near- 
ness of the land might make it difficult to preserve the prizes, 
and he was emphatic in directing that, if the shattered enemies 
had any chance of returning to Cadiz, the frigates were to be 
actively employed in destrojdng them, and were not to be di- 
verted from that single aim in order to save either ships or 
men. Annihilation, he repeated, was his aim, and nothing 

46 



722 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

short of it ; and he must have regretted the absence of the six 
of the line in the Mediterranean, imperative as that had been. 
Word had been sent for them to Gibraltar by Blackwood the 
moment the enemy moved, but they were still away with the 
convoy. 

Blackwood, being a great personal friend of the admiral, 
took the liberty, after exchanging greetings, of submitting to 
him the expediency of shifting his flag to the "Euryalus," 
and conducting the battle from her, Nelson made no reply, but 
immediately ordered more sail to be made upon the " Victory." 
Finding himself foiled in this, Blackwood then made a direct 
request for the command of one of the two vacant seventy- 
fours. This would give him a chance to share in the fight, 
which in a frigate he probably would not have, but it would 
also displace the first lieutenant of the ship from the position 
to which he had succeeded temporarily. jSTelson replied in- 
stantly, "No, Blackwood, it is those men's birthright, and 
they shall have it." ^ The incident shows vividly the lively 
sympathy and sense of justice which ever distinguished 
Nelson ; for it must have pained him to deny a request so 
consonant to his own tem])er, coming from one whom he had 
long known and valued, both as a friend and as an officer, and 
of whose recent service such orders would have been a graceful 
and appropriate acknowledgment. It may be desirable to 
explain to unprofessional readers what was the claim of the 
lieutenants which Nelson refused to ignore. The efliciency of 
the ships for the coming day's work was due to them scarcely 
less than to the absent captains, and if they survived the 
battle, having been in command through it, they would reap 
not only the honor but also their confirmation in the rank of 
post-captain, through having exercised it in actual battle. 
This succession the admiral aptly called their birthright. 

Nelson availed himself of Blackwood's presence to have 
him, together with Hardy, witness his signature to a paper, 
in which he bequeathed Lady Hamilton and the child Horatia 
to the care of the nation, and which consequently has been 
styled a Codicil to his Will. Unless Blackwood's memory a 

1 The author is indebted for these incidents to Admiral Sir W. R. Mends, 
G. C. B., who received them from the second baronet, Sir Henry M. Black- 
wood, when serving with him as first lieutenant. 



FINAL CODICIL TO HIS WILL 723 

few years later was at fault, in stating that his signal was 
made at six o'clock/ it is likely enough that this early sum- 
mons was for the special purpose of giving formal complete- 
ness, by the attestation of two of his closest friends, to a 
private duty which was the last to engage Nelson's attention 
and affections; for, in addition to the date, the place and hour 
of his writing are fixed by the words, " In sight of the Com- 
bined Fleets of France and Spain, distant about ten miles." 
This was the common estimate of the relative positions, made 
by the British fleet at large at daybreak, and coincides fairly 
well with the inferences to be drawn, from the slow rate of 
speed at which the wind permitted the British to advance, 
and from the hour the conflict began. Nor was there time, 
nor convenient room, for further delay. A freshening breeze 
might readily have brought the fleet into action in a couple 
of hours, and it is the custom in preparing for battle — the 
signal for which was made at 6.40 — to remove most of the 
conveniences, and arrangements for privacy, from the living 
spaces of the officers ; partly to provide against their destruc- 
tion, chiefly to clear away all impediments" to fighting the 
guns, and to moving about the ship. In the case of the 
admiral, of course, much might be postponed to the last mo- 
ment, but in fact his cabin was cleared of fixtures immediately 
after he went on the poop in the early morning ; for it is 
distinctly mentioned that while there he gave particular di- 
rections in the matter, and enjoined great care in handling the 
portrait of Lady Hamilton, saying, '' Take care of my guardian 
angel." 

It seems, therefore, probable that this so-called Codicil was 
written in the quiet minutes of the morning, while the fleet 
was forming its order of sailing and bearing up for the enemy, 
but before the admiral's cabin was cleared for battle. In it 

1 The "Euryalus's" log gives eight o'clock as the hour of the captain's 
going on board the " Victory; " but Blackwood not only says six, but also 
mentions that his stay on board lasted five and a half hours, which gives 
about the same time for going on board. The other frigate captains did not 
go till eight. Blackwood, as the senior, might need a fuller and longer con- 
tinued interview, because the general direction of the frigate squadron would 
be in his hands ; or Nelson might particularly desire the presence of a close 
pi'ofessional friend, the captains of the ships-of-the-line having their hands 
now full of preparations. 



724 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelson first recounted, briefly but specifically, " tbe eminent 
services of Emma Hamilton " to tlie state, on two occasions, as 
believed by himself to have been rendered. Into the actuality 
of these services it is not necessary here to inquire ; ^ it is 
sufficient to say that Nelson's knowledge of them could not 
have been at first hand, and that the credence he unquestion- 
ably gave to them must have depended upon the evidence 
of others, — probably of Lady Hamilton herself, in whom he 
felt, and always expressed, the most unbounded confidence. 
" Could I have rewarded these services," the paper concludes, 
" I would not now call upon my Country ; but as that has not 
been in my power, I leave Emma Lady Hamilton, therefore, 
a legacy to my King and Countr}-, that they will give her an 
ample provision to maintain her rank in life. I also leave to 
the beneficence of my Country my adopted daughter, Horatia 
Nelson Thompson ; and I desire she will use in future the 
name of Nelson only. These are the only favours I ask of my 
King and Country at this moment when I am going to fight 
their battle. May God bless my King and Countr}^, and all 
those who I hold' dear. My relations it is needless to mention : 
they will of course be amply provided for." 

At seven o'clock Nelson had returned from the poop to the 
cabin, for at that hour was made in his private journal the 
last entry of occurrences, — " At seven the combined fleets 
wearing in succession." Here it seems likely tliat he laid 
down the j)en, for, when he was found writing again, some hours 
later, it was to complete the long record of experiences and of 
duties, with words that summed up, in fit and most touching 
expression, the self-devotion of a life already entering the 
shadow of death. 

Between eight and nine o'clock the other frigate commanders 
came on board the " Victory ; " aides-de-camp, as it were, 
waiting to the last moment to receive such orders as might 
require more extensive wording, or precise explanation, than 
is supplied by the sententious phrases of the signal-book. 
Blackwood himself, a captain of long standing and of tried 

1 The question of Lady Hamilton's services on the occasions mentioned by 
Nelson, vigorously asserted by herself, has been exhaustively discussed by Pro- 
fessor John Knox Laughton, in the " United Service Magazine " for April and 
May, 1889. His conclusions are decisively adverse to her claims. 



THE FLEETS FORMING FOR BATTLE. 725 

ability, was in fact intrusted contingently with no small share 
of the power and discretion of the commander-in-chief. " He 
not only gave me command of all the frigates, but he also 
gave me a latitmle, seldom or ever given, that of making any 
use I pleased of his name, in ordering any of the sternmost 
line-of-battle ships to do what struck me as best." While 
thus waiting, the captains accompanied the admiral in an 
inspection which he made of the decks and batteries of the 
flagship. He addressed the crew at their several quarters, 
cautioned them against firing a single shot without being sure 
of their object, and to the officers he expressed himself as 
highly satisfied with the arrangements made. 

Meanwhile the two fleets were forming, as best they could 
with the scanty breeze, the order in which each meant to meet 
the shock of battle. The British could not range themselves 
in regular columns without loss of time that was not to be 
thrown away. They advanced rather in two elongated groups, 
all under full sail, even to studding-sails on both sides, the 
place of each ship being determined chiefly by her speed, or, 
perhaps, by some fortuitous advantage of position when the 
movement began. The great point was to get the heads of 
the columns into action as soon as possible, to break up the 
enemy's order. That done, those which followed could be 
trusted to complete the business on the general lines pre- 
scribed by Nelson. Colling wood's ship, the " Royal Sovereign," 
being but a few days out from home, and freshly coppered, 
easily took the lead in her own division. After her came the 
"Belleisle," also a recent arrival off Cadiz, but an old Medi- 
terranean cruiser which had accompanied I^elson in the re- 
cent chase to the West Indies. Upon these two ships, as 
upon the heads of all columns, fell the weight of destruction 
from the enemy's resistance. 

The " Victory," always a fast ship, had likewise little diffi- 
culty in keeping her place at the front. Blackwood, hav- 
ing failed to get Nelson on board his own frigate, and realizing 
the exposure inseparable from the position of leader, ven- 
tured, at about half-past nine, when still six miles from the 
enemy, to urge that one or two ships should be permitted to 
precede the "Victory." Nelson gave a conditional assent — 
" Let them go," if they can. The " Temeraire," a three-decker, 



726 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

being close behind, was hailed to go ahead, and endeavored to 
do so ; but at the same moment the admiral gave an indica- 
tion of how little disposed he was to yield either time or posi- 
tion. The lee lower studding-sail happening to be badly set, 
the lieutenant of the forecastle had it taken in, meaning to 
reset it ; which Nelson observing, ran forward and rated him 
severely for delaying the ship's progress. Anything much less 
useful than a lee lower studding-sail is hard to imagine, but 
by this time the admiral was getting very restive. " About 
ten o'clock," says Blackwood, " Lord ISTelson's anxiety to close 
with the enemy became very apparent: he frequently re- 
marked that they put a good face upon it; but always 
quickly added : ' I '11 give them such a dressing as they never 
had before.' " 

Seeing that the " Temeraire " could not pass the " Victory " 
in time to lead into the hostile order, unless the flagship gave 
way, Blackwood, feeling perhaps that he might wear out his 
own privilege, told Hardy he ought to say to the admiral that, 
unless the " Victory " shortened sail, the other ships could not 
get into place ; but Hardy naturally demurred. In any event, 
it was not just the sort of proposition that the captain of the 
ship would wish to make, and it was very doubtful how Nelson 
might take it. This the latter soon showed, however ; for, as 
the " Temeraire " painfully crawled up, and her bows doubled 
on the " Victory's " quarter, he hailed her, and speaking as he 
always did with a slight nasal intonation, said: "I'll thank 
you. Captain Harvey, to keep in your proper station, which is 
astern of the Victory." The same concern for the admiral's 
personal safety led the assembled officers to comment anxiously 
upon the conspicuous mark offered by his blaze of decorations, 
knowing as they did that the enemy's ships swarmed with 
soldiers, that among them were many sharpshooters, and that 
the action would be close. None, however, liked to approach 
him with the suggestion that he should take any precau- 
tion. At length the surgeon, whose painful duty it was 
a few hours later to watch over the sad fulfilment of his 
apprehensions, said that he would run the risk of his Lord- 
ship's displeasure ; but before he could find a fitting oppor- 
tunity to speak, a shot flew over the "Victory," and the 
admiral directed all not stationed on deck to go to their 



THE ORDER OF THE COMBINED FLEETS 727 



quarters. No remark therefore was made ; but it is more 
likely that Nelson would have resented the warning than 
that he would have heeded it. 

The French and Spanish fleets, being neither a homogeneous 
nor a well-exercised mass, experienced even greater difficulty 
than the British in forming their array ; and the matter was 
to them of more consequence, for, as the defensive has an ad- 
vantage in the careful preparations he may make, so, if he fail 
to accomplish them, he has little to compensate for the loss of 
the initiative, which he has yielded his opponent. The forma- 
tion at which they aimed, the customary order of battle in that 
day, was a long, straight, single column, presenting from end 
to end an unbroken succession of batteries, close to one another 
and clear towards the foe, so that all the ships should sweep 
with their guns the sea over which, nearly at right angles, the 
hostile columns were advancing. Instead of this, embarrassed 
by both lack of wind and lack of skill, their manoeuvres re- 
sulted in a curved line, concave to the enemy's approach ; the 
horns of the crescent thus formed being nearer to the latter. 
Collingwood noted that this disposition facilitated a conver- 
gent fire upon the assailants, the heads of whose columns 
were bearing down on the allied centre; it does not seem to 
have been remarked that the two horns, or wings, being to 
windward of the centre, also had it more in their power to sup- 
port the latter — a consideration of very great importance. 
Neither of these advantages, however, was due to contrivance. 
The order of the combined fleets was the result merely of an 
unsuccessful effort to assume the usual line of battle. The 
ships distributed along the crescent lay irregularly, sometimes 
two and three abreast, masking each other's fire. On the other 
hand, even this irregularity had some compensations, for a 
British vessel, attempting to pass through at such a place, fell 
at once into a swarm of enemies. From horn to horn was 
about five miles. Owing to the lightness of the breeze, the 
allies carried a good deal of sail, a departure from the usual 
battle practice. This was necessary in order to enable them 
to keep their places at all, but it also had the effect of bring- 
ing them continually, though very gradually, nearer to Cadiz. 
Seeing this, Nelson signalled to Collingwood, "I intend to 
pass through the van of the enemy's line, to prevent him from 



728 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

getting into Cadiz," and the course of the " Victory," for this 
purpose, was changed a little to the northward. 

After this, towards eleven o'clock, Nelson went below to 
the cabin. It was his habit, when an engagement was ex- 
pected, to have all the bulkheads ^ upon the fighting decks 
taken down, and those of his own apartments doubtless had 
been removed at least as soon as the enemy's sailing was sior- 
nalled; bvit it was possible to obtain some degree of privacy 
by hanging screens, which could be hurried out of the way at 
the last moment. The "Victory" did not come under fire till 
12.30, so that at eleven she would yet be three miles or more 
distant from the enemy,^ and screens could still remain. 
Shortly after he entered, the signal-lieutenant, who had been 
by his side all the morning, followed hiin, partly to make an 
official report, partly to prefer a personal request. He was the 
ranking lieutenant on board, but had not been permitted to 
exercise the duties of first lieutenant, because Nelson some 
time before, to avoid constant changes in that important sta- 
tion, had ordered that the person then occupying it should so 
continue, notwithstanding the seniority of any who might 
afterwards join. Now that battle was at hand, the oldest 
in rank wished to claim the position, and to gain the reward 
that it insured after a victory, — a request natural and not 
improper, but more siiited for the retirement of the cabin than 
for the publicity of the deck. 

Whatever the original injustice, — or rather hardship, — 
it is scarcely likely, remembering the refusal encountered 
by Blackwood, that Nelson would have consented now to 
deprive of his " birthright " the man who so far had been 
doing the work ; but the petition was never preferred. 
Entering the cabin, the officer paused at the threshold, for 
Nelson was on his knees writing. The words, the last that 
he ever penned, were written in the private diary he habitu- 
ally kept, in Avhich were noted observations and reflections 
upon passing occurrences, mingled with occasional self-com- 
munings. They followed now, without break of space, or 
paragraph, upon the last incident recorded — " At seven the 
enemy wearing in succession " — and they ran thus : — 

"May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my 

1 See ante, p. 639. ^ Xhat is, with a one and a half knot breeze. 



THE FAMOUS SIGNAL AT TRAFALGAR 729 

Country, and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great 
and glorious victory ; and may no misconduct in any one 
tarnish it ; and may humanity after victory be the predomi- 
nant feature in the British fleet. For myself, individually, 
I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His bless- 
ing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faith- 
fully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is 
entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen." 

The officer, Lieutenant Pasco, waited quietly till Nelson 
rose from his knees, and then made his necessary report; 
but, although his future prospects hung upon the wish he 
had to express, he refrained with singular delicacy from 
intruding it upon the preoccupation of mind evidenced by 
the attitude in which he had found his commander. The 
latter soon afterwards followed him to the poop, where 
Blackwood was still awaiting his final instructions. To him 
Nelson said, " I will now amuse the fleet with a signal ; " 
and he asked if he did not think there was one yet wanting. 
Blackwood replied that the whole fleet seemed very clearly 
to, understand what they Avere about, and were vying with 
each other to get as near as possible to the leaders of the 
columns. Upon this succeeded the celebrated signal, the 
development of which to its final wording is a little uncertain. 
Comparing the various accounts of witnesses, it seems 
probably to have been as follows. Nelson mused for a little 
while, as one who phrases a thought in his own mind before 
uttering it, and then said, ''Suppose we telegraph 'Nelson 
confides that every man will do his duty.'" In this form it 
was the call of the leader to the followers, the personal appeal 
of one who trusts to those in whom he trusts, a feeling par- 
ticularly characteristic of the speaker, whose strong hold 
over others lay above all in the transparent and unswerving 
faith he showed in their loyal support ; and to arouse it now 
in full force he used the watchword "duty," sure that the 
chord it struck in him would find its quick response in every 
man of the same blood. The oflicer to whom the remark was 
made, suggested "England" instead of "Nelson." To the 
fleet it could have made no difference, — to them the two 
names meant the same thing ; but Nelson accepted the change 
■\vith delight. "Mr. Pasco," he called to the signal officer. 



730 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

"I wish to say to the fleet, 'England confides that every 
man will do his duty ; ' " and he added, " You must be quick, 
for I have one more to make, which is for close action." 
This remark shows that the columns, and particularly Col- 
lingwood's ship, were already nearing the enemy. Pasco 
answered, "If your Lordship will permit me to substitute 
'expects' for 'confides,' it will be sooner completed, because 
'expects ' is in the vocabulary,^ and ' confides' must be spelt." 
Nelson replied hastily, but apparently satisfied, " That will 
do, Pasco, make it directly ; " but the slightly mandatory 
"expects" is less representative of the author of this re- 
nowned sentence than the cordial and sympathetic " confides." 
It is "Allez," rather than "Allons;" yet even so, become 
now the voice of the distant motherland, it carries with it the 
shade of reverence, as well as of affection, which patriotism 
exacts. 

It is said that Collingwood, frequently testy, and at the 
moment preoccupied with the approaching collision with the 
Spanish three-decker he had marked for his opponent, ex- 
claimed impatiently when the first number went aloft, "I 
wish Nelson would stop signalling, as we know well enough 
Avhat we have to do." But the two life-long friends, who 
were not again to look each other in the face, soon passed to 
other thoughts, such as men gladly recall when death has 
parted them. When the whole signal was reported to him, 
and cheers resounded along the lines, Collingwood cordially 
expressed his own satisfaction. A few moments later, just 
at noon, the French ship " Fougueux," the second astern of 
the "Santa Ana," for which the " Koyal Sovereign" was 
steering, fired at the latter the first gun of the battle. As 
by a common impulse the ships of all the nations engaged 
hoisted their colors, and the admirals their flags, — a cour- 
teous and chivalrous salute preceding the mortal encounter. 
For ten minutes the " Royal Sovereign " advanced in silence, 
the one centre of the hostile fire, upon which were fixed all 
eyes, as yet without danger of their own to distract. As she 

1 The vocabulary of the telegraphic signal book provides certain words 
which can be signalled by a single niuuber. Words not in this vocabulary 
must be sjielled letter by letter, — each letter of the alphabet having its own 
number. 



HIS FAREWELL TO BLACKWOOD ' 731 

drew near the two shij^s between which she intended to pass, 
Nelson exclaimed admiringly, '' See how that noble fellow 
Collingwood carries his ship into action." At about the same 
instant Collingwood was saying to his flag-captain, '' Eother- 
ham, what would Nelson give to be here ! " 

These things being done, Nelson said to Blackwood, " Now 
I can do no more. We must trust to the great Disposer of 
all events, and to the justice of our cause. I thank God for 
this great opportunity of doing my duty." When his last 
signal had been acknowledged by a few ships in the van, 
the admiral directed Pasco to make that for close action, and 
to keep it up. This was accordingly hoisted on board the 
flagship, where it was flying still as she disappeared into the 
smoke of the battle, and so remained till shot away. The 
"Victory " was about two miles from the *• Royal Sovereign " 
when the latter, at ten minutes past twelve, broke through 
the allied order, and she had still a mile and a half to go 
before she herself could reach it. At twenty minutes past 
twelve Villeneuve's flagship, the "Bucentaure," of eighty 
guns, fired a shot at her, to try the range. It fell short. A 
few minutes later a second was fired, which dropped along- 
side. The distance then was a mile and a quarter. Two or 
three followed in rapid succession and passed over the "Vic- 
tory." Nelson then turned to Blackwood, and directed him 
and Captain Prowse of the " Sirius " to return to their ships, 
but in so doing to pass along the column and tell the cap- 
tains he depended upon their exertions to get into action 
as quickly as possible. He them bade them again to go 
away. Blackwood, who was standing by him at the for- 
ward end of the poop, took his hand, and said, "I trust, 
my Lord, that on my return to the Victory, which will 
be as soon as possible, I shall find your Lordship well and 
in possession of twenty prizes." Nelson replied, " God bless 
you, Blackwood, I shall never speak to you again." 

The " Victory " was all the time advancing, the feeble 
breeze urging her progress, Avhich was helped also by her lurch- 
ing through the heavy following swell that prevailed. Before 
Blackwood could leave her, a shot passed through the niain- 
topgallantsail, and the rent proclaimed to the eager eyes of 
the foes that the ship was fairly under their guns. Thereupon 



732 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

everything about the " Bucentaure," some seven or eight ships, 
at least, opened upon this single enemy, as the allied rear and 
centre had upon the " Royal Sovereign ; " for it was imperative 
to stop her way, if possible, or at least to deaden it, and so to 
delay as long as might be the moment when she could bring 
her broadside to bear effectively. During the forty minutes 
that followed, the " Victory " was an unresisting target to her 
enemies, and her speed, slow enough at the first, decreased 
continually as the hail of shot riddled the sails, or stripped 
them from the yards. Every studding-sail boom was shot 
away close to the yard arms, and this light canvas, invaluable 
in so faint a wind, fell helplessly into the water. During 
these trying moments, Mr. Scott, the admiral's public secre- 
tary, was struck by a round shot while talking with Captain 
Hardy, and instantly killed. Those standing by sought to 
remove the body 'without drawing Nelson's attention to the 
loss of one so closely associated with him ; but the admiral 
had noticed the fall. " Is that poor Scott," he said, " who is 
gone ? " The clerk who took the dead man's place was killed 
a few moments later by the wind of a ball, though his person 
was untouched. 

The "Victory" continuing to forge slowly ahead, despite 
her injuries, and pointing evidently for the flagship of the 
hostile commander-in-chief, the ships round the latter, to use 
James's striking phrase, now " closed like a forest." The 
nearer the British vessel drew, the better necessarily became 
the enemies' aim. Just as she got within about five hundred 
yards — quarter of a mile — from the " Bucentaure's " beam, 
the mizzen topmast was shot away. At the same time the 
wheel was hit and shattered, so that the ship had to be steered 
from below, a matter that soon became of little importance. 
A couple of minutes more, eight marines were carried off by a 
single projectile, while standing drawn up on the poop, where- 
upon Nelson ordered the survivors to be dispersed about the 
deck. Presently a shot coming in through the ship's side 
ranged aft on the quarter-deck towards the admiral and 
Captain Hardy, between whom it passed. On its way it 
struck the fore-brace bitts — a heavy block of timber — carry- 
ing thence a shower of splinters, one of which bruised Hardy's 
foot. The two officers, who were walking together, stopped, 



THE "VICTORY" ENTERS THE BATTLE 733 

and looked inquiringly at each other. Seeing that no harm 
was done, Nelson smiled, but' said, '-This is too warm work, 
Hardy, to last long." He then praised the cool resolution of 
the seamen around him, compelled to endure this murderous 
fire without present reply. He had never, he said, seen better 
conduct. Twenty men had so far been killed and thirty 
wounded, with not a shot fired from their own guns. 

Still the ship closed the " Bucentaure." It had been 
Nelson's purpose and desire to make her his special antag- 
onist, because of Villeneuve's flag ; but to do so required room 
for the " Victory " to turn under the French vessel's stern, 
and to come up alongside. As she drew near. Hardy, scan- 
ning the hostile array, saw three ships crowded together behind 
and beyond the " Bucentaure." He reported to Nelson that 
he could go close under her stern, but could not round-to along- 
side, nor pass through the line, without running on board one 
of these. The admiral replied, '' I cannot help it, it does not 
signify which we run on board of. Go on board which you 
please : take your choice." At one o'clock the bows of the 
" Victory " crossed the wake of the " Bucentaure," by whose 
stern she passed within thirty feet, the projecting yard arms 
grazing the enemy's rigging. One after another, as they bore, 
the double-shotted guns tore through the woodwork of the 
French ship, the smoke, driven back, filling the lower decks of 
the " Victory," while persons on the upper deck, including 
Nelson himself, were covered with the dust which rose in 
clouds from the wreck. From the relative positions of the 
two vessels, the shot ranged from end to end of the "Bu- 
centaure," and the injury was tremendous. Twenty guns 
were at once dismounted, and the loss by that single discharge 
was estimated, by the French, at four hundred men. Leaving 
the further care of the enemy's flagship to her followers, 
secure that they would give due heed to the admiral's order, 
that "every effort must be made to capture the hostile com- 
mander-in-chief," the " Victory " put her helm up, inclining 
to the right, and ran on board a French seventy-four, the 
" Redoutable," whose guns, as well as those of the French 
" Neptune," had been busily playing upon her hitherto. At 
1.10 she lay along the port side of the "Redoutable," the 
two ships falling off with their heads to the eastward, and 
moving slowly before the wind to the east-southeast. 



734 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

In the duel which ensued between these two, in which 
Nelson fell, the disparity, so far as weight of battery was 
concerned, was all against the French ship; but the latter, 
while greatly overmatched at the guns, much the greater 
part of which were below deck, was markedly superior to her 
antagonist in small-arm fire on the upper deck, and especially 
aloft, where she had many musketeers stationed. Nelson 
himself was averse to the employment of men in that position, 
thinking the danger of fire greater than the gain, but the 
result on this day was fatal to very many of the " Victory's " 
men as well as to himself. As the ship's place in the battle 
was fixed for the moment, nothing now remained to be done, 
except for the crews to ply their weapons till the end was 
reached. The admiral and the captain, their parts of direction 
and guidance being finished, walked back and forth together 
on the quarter-deck, on the side farthest from the " Redou- 
table," where there was a clear space of a little over twenty 
feet in length, fore and aft, from the wheel to the hatch 
ladder leading down to the cabin. The raizzen top of the 
"■ Redoutable," garnished with sharpshooters, was about fifty 
feet above them. Fifteen minutes after the vessels came 
together, as the two officers were walking forward, and had 
nearly reached the usual place of turning. Nelson, who was on 
Hardy's left, suddenly faced left about. Hardy, after taking 
a step farther, turned also, and saw the admiral in the act of 
falling — on his knees, with his left hand touching the deck ; 
then, the arm giving way, he fell on his left side. It was in 
the exact spot where Scott, the secretary, had been killed an 
hour before. To Hard3r's natural exclamation that he hoped he 
was not badly hurt, he replied, " They have done for me at 
last;" and when the expression of hope was repeated, he 
said again, *' Yes, my back-bone is shot through." " I felt it 
break my back," he told the surgeou, a few minutes later. 
The ball had struck him on the left shoulder, on the forward 
part of the epaulette, piercing the lung, where it severed a 
large artery, and then passed through the spine from left to 
right, lodging finally in the muscles of the back. Although 
there was more than one mortal injury, the immediate and 
merciful cause of his speedy death was the internal bleeding 
from the artery. Within a few moments of his wounding 



1 



NELSON MORTALLY WOUNDED 735 

some forty officers and men were cut down by the same 
murderous fire from the tops of the enemy. Indeed so 
stripped of men was the upper deck of the " Victory " that 
the French made a movement to board, which was repulsed, 
■though with heavy loss. 

The stricken hero was at once carried below, himself cov- 
ering his face and the decorations of his coat with his hand- 
kerchief, that the sight of their loss might not affect the 
ship's company at this critical instant. The cockpit was 
already cumbered with the wounded and dying, but the hand- 
kerchief falling from his face, the surgeon recognized him, 
and came at once to him. "You can do nothing for me, 
Beatty," he said; ''I have but a short time to live." The 
surgeon also uttered the involuntary exclamation of encourage- 
ment, which rises inevitably to the lips at such a moment ; 
but a short examination, and the sufferer's statement of his 
sensations, especially the gushing of blood within the breast, 
which was vividly felt, convinced him that there was indeed 
no hope. "Doctor, I am gone," he said to the Kev. Mr. 
Scott, the chaplain, who knelt beside him ; and then added 
in a low voice, " I have to leave Lady Hamilton, and my 
adopted daughter Horatia, as a legacy to my Country." 

After the necessary examination had been made, nothing 
further could be done, nor was attempted, than to obtain the 
utmost possible relief from suffering. Dr. Scott and the pur- 
ser of the " Victory " sustained the bed under his shoulders, 
raising him into a semi-recumbent posture, the only one that 
was supportable to him, and fanned him ; while others gave 
him the cooling drink — lemonade — which he continually 
demanded. Those about did not speak to him, except when 
addressed ; but the chaplain, to whom Nelson frequently said, 
"Pray forme, Doctor," ejaculated with him short prayers 
from time to time. The agony of mortal pain wrung from 
him repeated utterance, though no unmanly complaint; and 
his thoughts dwelt more upon home and the battle than upon 
his own suffering and approaching death. His mind remained 
clear until he became speechless, about fifteen minutes before 
he passed away, and he took frequent notice of what occurred 
near him, as well as of sounds on deck. 

The hour that succeeded his wounding was the decisive 



736 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

one of the fight ; not that the issue admitted of much doubt, 
after once Nelson's plans had received fulfilment, and the 
battle joined, — unless the delinquent van of the allies had 
acted promptly, — but in those moments the work was done 
which was thenceforth, for the enemy, beyond repair. Over- 
head, therefore, the strife went on incessantly, the seamen 
toiling steadily at their guns, and cheering repeatedly. Near 
the admiral lay Lieutenant Pasco, severely but not fatally 
wounded. At one burst of hurrahs. Nelson asked eagerly 
what it was about ; and Pasco replying that another ship had 
struck, he expressed his satisfaction. Soon he became very 
anxious for further and more exact information of the course 
of the battle, and about the safety of Captain Hardy, upon 
whom now was devolved such guidance as the fleet, until the 
action was over, must continue to receive from the flagship of 
tbe commander-in-chief. In accordance with his wishes many 
messages were sent to Hardy to come to him, but for some 
time it was not possible for that officer to leave the deck. 
During this period, up to between half-pasfc two and three, the 
ships of the two British divisions, that followed the leaders, 
were breaking successively into the enemy's order, and carry- 
ing out with intelligent precision the broad outlines of Nelson's 
instructions. The heads of the columns had dashed them- 
selves to pieces, like a forlorn hope, against the overpowering 
number of foes which opposed their passage — an analysis 
of the returns shows that upon the four ships which led, the 
"Victory" and "Temeraire," the V Royal Sovereign" and 
"Belleisle," fell one-third of the entire loss in a fleet of 
twenty-seven sail. But they had forced their way through, 
and by the sacrifice of themselves had shattered and pulver- 
ized the local resistance, destroyed the coherence of the hostile 
line, and opened the road for the successful action of their 
followers. With the appearance of the latter upon the scene, 
succeeded shortly by the approach of the allied van, though 
too late and in disorder, began what may be called the second 
and final phase of the battle. 

While such things were happening the deck could not be 
left by Hardy, who, for the time being, was commander-in- 
chief as well as captain. Shortly after Nelson fell, the " Teme- 
raire " had run on board the " Redoutable " on the other side, 




CAPTAIN THOMAS MASTERMAN HARDY. 

From the painting by Robert Evans, at Greenwich Hospital. 



2 



THE HOUR OF DEATH 737 

and the French "Fougueux" upon the "Temeraire," so that 
for a few minutes the four ships were fast together, in the 
heat of the fight. About quarter past two, the " Victory " 
was shoved clear, and lay with her head to the northward, 
though scarcely with steerage way. The three others re- 
mained in contact with their heads to the southward. While 
this melee was in progress, the French flagship "Bucentaure '' 
surrendered, at five minutes past two ; but, before hauling 
down the flag, Yilleneuve made a signal to his recreant van, — 
"The ships that are not engaged, take positions which will 
bring them most rapidly under fire." Thus summoned, the 
ten vessels which constituted tlie van began to go about, as 
they should have done before ; and, although retarded by the 
slack wind, they had got their heads to the southward by half- 
past two. Five stood to leeward of the line of battle, but 
five to windward. The latter would pass not far to the west- 
ward of the " Victory," and to meet this fresh attack demanded 
the captain's further care, and postponed his going to the 
death-bed of his chief. The latter had become very agitated 
at the delay, thinking that Hardy might be dead and the news 
kept from him. " Will nobody bring Hardy to me ? " he 
frequently exclaimed. " He must be killed ; he is surely 
destroyed." At last a midshipman came down with the mes- 
sage that " circumstances respecting the fleet required the 
captain's presence on deck, but that he would take the first 
favourable moment to visit his Lordship." Nelson, hearing 
the voice, asked who it was that spoke. The lad, Bulkeley, 
who later in the day was wounded also, was the son of a 
former shipmate in the far back days of the San Juan ex- 
pedition, and the dying admiral charged the lad with a 
remembrance to his father. 

Two ships of Nelson's column, as yet not engaged, — the 
" Spartiate " and the ''Minotaur," — were then just reaching 
the scene. Being in the extreme rear, the lightness of the 
breeze had so far delayed them. Arriving thus opportunely, 
they hauled to the wind so as to interpose between the " Vic- 
tory " and the approaching van of the allies. Covered now 
by two wholly fresh ships, the captain felt at liberty to quit 
the deck, in accordance with Nelson's desire. The two tried 
friends — Hardy had been everywhere with him since the day 

47 



738 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of St. Vincent, and was faithful enough to speak to Lady- 
Hamilton more freely than she liked — shook hands affec- 
tionately. "Well, Hardy," said Nelson, "how goes the 
battle ? How goes the day with us ? " " Very well, my 
Lord," replied Hardy. "We have got twelve or fourteen of 
the enemy's ships in our possession, but five of their van have 
tacked, and show an intention of bearing down upon tlie 
Victory. I have therefore called two or three of our fresh 
ships round us, and have no doubt of giving them a drubbing." 
" I hope none of our ships have struck, Hardy." " ISTo, my 
Lord," was the answer, " there is no fear of that." Nelson 
then said, " I am a dead man, Hardy. I am going fast : it 
will be all over with me soon. Come nearer to me. Pray let 
my dear Lady Hamilton have my hair, and all other things 
belonging to me." Hardy observed that he hoped Mr. Beatty 
could yet hold out some prospect of life. " Oh no ! " replied 
Nelson ; "it is impossible. My back is shot through. Beatty 
will tell you so." Hardy then returned to the deck, shaking 
hands again before parting. 

Nelson now desired the surgeons to leave him to the 
attendants, as one for whom nothing could be done, and to 
give their professional care where it would be of some avail. 
In a few moments he recalled the chief surgeon, and said, " I 
forgot to tell you that all power of motion and feeling below 
my breast are gone ; and you very well linow I can live but a 
short time." From the emphasis he placed on his words, the 
surgeon saw he was thinking of a case of spinal injury to a 
seaman some months before, which had proved mortal after 
many days' suffering; yet it would seem that, despite the con- 
viction that rested on his mind, the love of life, and of all it 
meant to him, yet clung to the hope that possibly there might 
be a reprieve. " One would like to live a little longer," he 
murmured; and added, "What would become of poor Lady 
Hamilton if she knew my situation!" "Beatty," he said 
again, ^^ you hnoio I am gone." "My Lord," replied the sur- 
geon, with a noble and courteous simplicity, "unhappily for 
our country, nothing can be done for you ; " and he turned 
away to conceal the emotion which he could not at once con- 
trol. " I know it," said Nelson. " I feel something rising in 
my breast," putting his hand on his left side, " which tells me 



HORATIA, AT 22 YEARS OP AGE. 

From a miniature by Sir William Charles Ross^ in the possession 
of Mr. Nelson Ward. 



FINAL PARTING WITH HARDY 739 

I am gone. God be praised, I have done my duty." To this 
latter thought he continually recurred. 

At about three o'clock, the five ships of the enemy's van, 
passing within gunshot to windward,^ opened fire upon the 
British ships and their prizes. The " Victory " with her con- 
sorts replied. " Oh, Victory ! Victory ! " cried the sufferer, 
" how you distract my poor brain ! " and after a pause added, 
*'■ How dear life is to all men ! " This distant exchange of 
shots was ineffectual, except to kill or wound a few more 
people, but while it continued Hardy had to be on deck, for 
the flag of the commander-in-chief still vested his authority 
in that ship. During this period an officer was sent to Col- 
lingwood to inform him of the admiral's condition, and to 
bear a personal message of farewell from the latter ; but Nelson 
had no idea of transferring any portion of his duty until he 
parted with his life also. 

A short hour elapsed between Hardy's leaving the cockpit 
and his returning to it, which brings the time to four o'clock. 
Strength had ebbed fast meanwhile, and the end was now very 
near ; but Nelson was still conscious. The friends again shook 
hands, and the captain, before releasing his grasp, congratu- 
lated the dying hero upon the brilliancy of the victory. It 
was complete, he said. How many were captured, it was im- 
possible to see, but he was certain fourteen or fifteen. The 
exact number proved to be eighteen. " That is well," said 
Nelson, but added, faithful to his exhaustive ideas of suffi- 
ciency, " I bargained for twenty." Then he exclaimed, 
"Anchor, Hardy, anchor !" Hardy felt the embarrassment of 
issuing orders now that Collingwood knew that his chief was 
in the very arms of death; but Nelson was clearly within his 
rights. " I suppose, ray Lord," said the captain, " Admiral Col- 
lingwood will now take upon himself the direction of affairs." 
"Not while I live, I hope. Hardy," cried Nelson, and for a 
moment endeavored, ineffectually, to raise himself from the bed. 
"No. Do you anchor, Hardy." Captain Hardy then said, 
" Shall we make the signal, Sir ? " "Yes," answered the ad- 
miral, "for if I live, I'll anchor." These words he repeated 
several times, even after Hardy had left him, and the energy of 

1 That is, to the westward. 



740 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

his manner showed that for the moment the sense of duty and 
of responsibility had triumphed over his increasing weakness. 

Reaction of course followed, and he told Hardy he felt that 
in a few minutes he should be no more. " Don't throw me over- 
board," he added; "you know what to do." Hardy having 
given assurance that these wishes should be attended to, 
Nelson then said, " Take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, 
Hardy : take care of poor Lady Hamilton. Kiss me, Hardy." 
The captain knelt down and kissed his cheek. "Now I am 
satisfied. Thank God, I have done my duty." Hardy rose 
and stood looking silently at him for an instant or two, 
then knelt down again and kissed his forehead. "Who is 
that ? " asked Nelson. The captain answered, " It is Hardy ; " 
to which his Lordship replied, " God bless you, Hardy ! " The 
latter then returned to the quarter-deck, having passed about 
eight minutes in this final interview. 

Nelson now desired his steward, who was in attendance 
throughout, to turn him on his right side. "I wish I had 
not left the deck," he murmured ; "for I shall soon be gone." 
Thenceforth he sank rapidly ; his breathing became oppressed 
and his voice faint. To Dr. Scott he said, "Doctor, I have 
not been a (/reat sinner," and after a short pause, ^'Remember, 
that I leave Lady Hamilton and my daughter Horatia as a 
legacy to my country — never forget Horatia." This injunc- 
tion, with remembrances to Lady Hamilton and the child, he 
frequently repeated ; and he charged Scott to see Mr. Eose, 
and tell him — but here pain interrupted his utterance, and 
after an interval he simply said, " Mr. Eose will remember," 
alluding to a letter which he had written him, but which as 
yet could not have been received. His thirst now increased ; 
and he called for " drink, drink," " fan, fan," and " rub, rub," 
addressing himself in this last case to Dr. Scott, who had been 
rubbing his breast with his hand, by which some relief was 
given. These words he spoke in a very rapid manner, which 
rendered his articulation difficult ; but he every now and then, 
with evident increase of pain, made a greater effort, and said dis- 
tinctly, " Thank God, I have done my duty." This he repeated 
at intervals as long as the power of speech remained. The 
last words caught by Dr. Scott, who was bending closely over 
him, were, " God and my Country." 



THE DEATH OF NELSON 741 

Eifteen minutes after Hardy left him for the second time, 
the admiral became speechless ; and when this had continued 
five minutes, the surgeon, who was busied among the other 
wounded, was summoned again. He found him upon the 
verge of dissolution, the hands cold and the pulse gone ; but 
upon laying his hand upon his forehead, Nelson opened his 
eyes, looked up, and then closed them forever. Five minutes 
later he was dead. The passing was so quiet that Dr. Scott, 
still rubbing his breast, did not perceive it, until the surgeon 
announced that all was over. It was half-past four o'clock, 
just three hours after the fatal wound was received. Not till 
an hour later did the last of the eighteen prizes strike, and 
firing cease altogether ; but the substantial results were known 
to Nelson before consciousness left him. To quote the rugged 
words of the "Victory's" log, "Partial firing continued until 
4.30, when a victory having been reported to the Eight Hon- 
ourable Lord Viscount Nelson, K. B., he died of his wound." 

Of the five ships of the allied van which passed to wind- 
ward of the "Victory," one was cut off and captured by the 
" Minotaur " and " Spartiate." The other four continued on 
the wind to the southwest, and escaped to sea. By the sur- 
render of Villeneuve the chief command of the combined fleets 
remained with the Spanish admiral Gravina. The latter, at 
quarter before five, fifteen minutes after Nelson breathed his 
last, retreated upon Cadiz, making signal for the vessels which 
had not struck to rally round his flag. Ten other ships, five 
French and five Spanish, — in all eleven sail-of-the-line, — 
made good their escape into the port. 

" Before sunset," wrote an eye-witness on board the " Belle- 
isle," "all firing had ceased. The view of the fleet at this 
period was highly interesting, and would have formed a beau- 
tiful subject for a painter. Just under the setting rays were 
five or six dismantled prizes ; on one hand lay the Victory 
with part of our fleet and prizes, and on the left hand the 
Royal Sovereign and a similar cluster of ships. To the north- 
ward, the remnant of the combined fleets was making for 
Cadiz. The Achille, with the tricoloured ensign still dis- 
played, had burnt to the water's edge about a mile from us, 
and our tenders and boats were using every effort to save the 
brave fellows who had so gloriously defended her j but only 



742 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

two hundred and fifty were rescued, and she blew up with a 
tremendous explosion." 

There, surrounded by the companions of his triumph, and 
by the trophies of his prowess, we leave our hero with his 
glory. Sharer of our mortal weakness, he has bequeathed to 
us a type of single-minded self-devotion that can never perish. 
As his funeral anthem proclaimed, while a nation mourned, 
" His body is buried in peace, but his Name liveth for ever- 
more." "Wars may cease, but the need for heroism shall not 
depart from the earth, while man remains man and evil exists 
to be redressed. Wherever danger has to be faced or duty 
to be done, at cost to self, men will draw inspiration from the 
name and deeds of Nelson, 

Happy he who lives to finish all his task. The words 
" I have done my duty," sealed tlie closed book of Nelson's 
story with a truth broader and deeper than he himself could 
suspect. His duty was done, and its fruit perfected. Other 
men have died in the hour of victory, but for no other has 
victory so singular and so signal graced the fulfilment and 
ending of a great life's work. " Finis coronat opus " has of no 
man been more true than of Nelson. There were, indeed, 
consequences momentous and stupendous yet to flow from the 
decisive supremacy of Great Britain's sea-power, the establish, 
ment of which, beyond all question or competition, was Nel- 
son's great achievement ; but his part was done when Trafalgar 
was fought. The coincidence of his death with the moment 
of completed success has impressed upon that superb battle 
a stamp of finality, an immortality of fame, which even its 
own grandeur scarcely could have insured. He needed, and 
he left, no successor. To use again St. Vincent's words, 
"There is but one Nelson." 





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INDEX 



INDEX 



Abodkir, Bay, Island, Promontory, 
and Castle, 293, 295, 296, 312, 314, 
418,419,431. 

Aboukir, Battle of, 419. 

Acton, Sir John, Prime Minister of 

. the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 
281, 291, 292, 327, 367, 377, 383, 
411, 566, 567, 569, 570, 590, 629, 
638. 

Addington (afterwards Lord Sid- 
mouth), Prime Minister of Great 
Britain, 1801-1804, Nelson's inter- 
course with, 328, 491, 493, 506, 520, 
543-544, 545, 546, 551, 553, 565, 
569, 579, 584, 704. 

Adriatic, importance to the communi- 
cations of the Austrians in Italy,21 1 , 
347; British concern in, 316, 568, 
571, 611 ; Napoleon's interest in, 564, 
571, 630; resort of privateers, 610. 

"Agamemnon," British ship-of-the- 
line, Nelson ordered to command 
her, 81 ; relation to his career, 
83-85 ; action with four Frencli 
frigates, 96, 97 ; engages the 
batteries at Bastia, 103, 104; 
action with the " Qa Ira," French 
80-gun ship, 139-141 ; engagement 
of March 14, 1795, 143; engage- 
ment of July 13, 151-153; services 
at Genoa, 170-173; on the opening 
of Bonaparte's campaign, 1796, 
187-190; Nelson leaves her for the 
"Captain," seventy-four, 195, 196; 
she sails for England, 196; subse- 
quent history, 196; misfortune at 
the Battle of Copenhagen, 479 ; 
joins the fleet shortly before Tra- 
falgar, 711. 

"Albemarle," British frigate com- 
manded by Nelson, 27-35. 

Alexandria, Nelson's first voyage to, 
284-290 ; second voyage, 293 ; block- 
aded, 313 ; Nelson's third voyage 
to, 640, 641. 



Algiers, Bonaparte's designs upon, 
561 ; Nelson's difficulties with, 600- 
602. 

"Amazon," British frigate, services 
at Copenhagen, 475, 478, 480, 482 ; 
subsequent mention, 589, 626-628, 
650, 656, 673. 

Amiens, Peace of, signature of, 529 ; 
Nelson's home life during, 532-556 ; 
rupture of, 554. 

" Amphion," British frigate, Nelson's 
passage to Mediterranean in, 565- 
572 ; leaves her for the " Victory," 
593. 

Arcliduke Charles, Nelson's meeting 
with, at Prague, 441. 

Austria and Austrians, result of cam- 
paign of 1794 in Holland and Ger- 
many, 132; in Italy, 133; delay in 
opening campaign of 1795 in Italy, 
151 ; their advance to Vado Bay, on 
the Riviera, 151 ; Nelson ordered to 
co-operate with, 151, 157; their dis- 
regard of Genoese neutrality, 157; 
position of, in summer of 1795, 158 ; 
inability, or unwillingness to ad- 
vance, 160, 161, 165; their attitude 
towards the British, 168, 172, 181 ; 
growing insecurity of their position, 
167, 170, 171, 181; attacked and 
defeated by French at Battle of 
Loano, 172; retreat across the 
Apennines, 172; urged by Nelson 
to reoccupy Vado in 1796, 186; 
their advance under Beaulieu, 187- 
190; Nelson's assurances to, 188; 
defeat by Bonaparte, 187, 190; 
driven into the Tyrol, and behind 
the Adige, 197 ; besieged in Man- 
tua, 197 ; advance under Wurmser 
to relieve Mantua, 203 ; Nelson's 
hopes therefrom, 203-205 ; hears of 
their defeat again, 205, 208; the 

■ peace of Campo Formio betweeti 
Austria and France, 271. 272 ; dis- 



746 



INDEX 



satisfaction of Austria with France, 
272, 275; effect of their position in 
upper Italy upon French operations, 
334 ; attitude towards France and 
Naples, 1798, 335; Nelson's judg- 
ment on, 342, 343 ; alliance with 
Russia, 1799, 342 ; successes in 1799, 
343, 355, 356, 405, 416, 417; re- 
verses, 417 ; capture of Genoa, 
1800, 436; defeat at Marengo, 436 ; 
abandon Northern Italy, 436 ; Nel- 
son's visit to, 438-440 ; peace with 
France, 1801, 458, 506 ; exhaustion 
of, 1801-1805, 558; Nelson's re- 
monstrance with, on failure to en- 
force her neutrality, 610. 



Ball, Sir Alexander J., British cap- 
tain, letter to Nelson, 180; joins 
Nelson's division at Gibraltar, 270 ; 
services in saving the flagship, 
277 ; advice asked by Nelson, 285 ; 
at the Battle of the Nile, 297, 
302-303 ; accompanies Nelson to 
Naples, 313 ; gallantry towards 
Lady Hamilton, 330 ; serves ashore 
at Malta, 335, 348-350, 410, 412, 
413, 414, 415; mentions with un- 
belief reports about Nelson and 
Lady Hamilton, 339 ; summoned to 
join Nelson upon the incursion of 
Admiral Bruix, 358-361, 366; 
ordered to resume duties at Malta, 
362 ; mention of Nelson in letters 
to Lady Hamilton, 424, 429 ; visits 
Nelson at Merton, 539 ; anecdote of 
Nelson told bv him, 539 ; letters 
from Nelson "to, 584, 586, 611- 
612, 635, 638, 641, 645, 648, 653; 
opinion as to French objects in 1804, 
585 ; Nelson's test}' vexation with, 
607 ; opinion as to the manage- 
ment of coast lookout stations, 675, 
note. 

Barbary States. See Algiers, Tripoli, 
Tunis. 

Barham, Lord, Nelson's interview 
with, as Comptroller of the Navy, 
72; First Lord of the Admiralty, 
652 and note, 674, 677, 678 ; Nel- 
son's interviews with, 677, 688 ; 
Nelson's letters to, 680, 705, 706, 
708. 

Bastia, town in Corsica,- in possession 
of French, 99 ; blockade of, by 



Nelson, 103, 105 ; engagement with 
batteries of, 103; description of, 
103; Nelson's opinion as to besieg- 
ing, 10.5-106, 108; siege of, 108- 
111; capitulation of, 110; Nelson's 
estimate as to his own services at, 
112, 113, 130; Nelson directed to 
superintend evacuation of, by 
British, 210; evacuation of, 214- 
216. 

Battles, land, mentioned: Aboukir, 
419; Castiglione, 205, 208 ; Hohen- 
linden, 459; Loano, 172; Marengo, 
436; Novi, 417. 

Battles, naval, mentioned : Calder's 
action, 666, 671, 675, 679; Camper- 
down, 264; Copenhagen, 472-487, 
488, 541-547; First of June (Lord 
Howe's), 128, 150; Julv 13, 1795, 
151-155; March 14, 1795, 141-148; 
the Nile, 293-306 ; St. Vincent, 229- 
238 ; Trafalgar, 724-742. 

Beatty, Dr., surgeon of the " Vic- 
tory," account of Nelson's habits 
and health, 596-598 and note; 
present at Nelson's death, 734, 735, 
738, 741. 

Beaulieu, Austrian general, com- 
mands the army in Italy, 1796, 
187; defeated by Bonaparte, and 
driven into the Tyrol, 187-190, 
197. 

Beckford, William, opinion of Lady 
Hamilton, 326; visited by Nelson 
at Fontliill, 449-450; anecdote of 
Nelson, 449. 

Berry, Sir Edward, British captain, 
accompanies Nelson in boarding 
the " San Nicolas " and " San 
Josef," 234, 235, 238; commands 
Nelson's flagship, the " Vanguard," 
264; account of the campaign of 
the Nile (quoted), 284, 290, 294, 
303, 307; at the Battle of the 
Nile, 300, 303, 310; sent to Eng- 
land with despatches, 308 ; com- 
mands the " Foudroyant " at tlie 
capture of the " Genereux," 425- 
427 ; at the capture of the " Guil- 
laume Tell," 430, 431 ; commands 
the "Agamemon" at Trafalgar, 
711 ; numerous services of, 712. 

Bickerton, Sir Richanl, British ad- 
miral, commands in the " Medi- 
terranean" when war with France 
begins, 1803, 570; second in com- 



INDEX 



747 



mand to Nelson, 1803-1805, 576, 
588, 591, 613, 616, 625, 628, 641; 
left in command by Nelson, upon 
his departure for the West Indies. 
654, 672, 674; joins Colliugwood 
before Cadiz, 689 ; returns to Eng- 
land, ill, just before Trafalgar, 
692. 

Blackwood, Sir Henry, British captain, 
distinguished part taken in the cap- 
ture of the " Guillaunie Tell," 43 1 , 
684 ; arrives in London with news 
that the combined fleets are in 
Cadiz, 684; interviews with Nelson, 
684 ; commands advanced squadron 
of frigates off Cadiz, 692, 708, 711, 
714-718; last dav spent with Nel- 
son, 721-726, 729-732 ; witnesses 
the " Codicil "to Nelson's will, 722- 
723 ; special mark of confidence 
shown him by Nelson, 724; Nel- 
son's farewell to him, 731. 

Bolton, Susannah, Nelson's sister, 
relations of, with Lady Nelson and 
Lady Hamilton, 452, 556. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, decisive influ- 
ence of Nelson upon the career of, 
82, 83, 187, 458, 459, 506, 507, 632- 
635, 646, 660, 668, 672 ; indicates the 
key of the defences of Toulon, 100; 
opinions upon operations in Italy, 
159, 160, 164, 166, 168, 177, 183, 
184, 187, 334, 337; command of 
Army of Italy, 187; defeats Beau- 
lieu, advances to the Adige, and 
establishes the French position in 
Northern Italy, 187-190, 194, 195, 
197; fortifies the coast-line of the 
Kiviera, 190, 194; seizes Leghorn, 
197-199, 201 ; contrasted with Nel- 
son, 200, 201, 220, 514, 515, 551 ; 
overthrows Wurmser, 203, 205 ; 
effect of his campaign in Italy 
upon the career of Nelson, 206, 207, 
272 ; forces Genoa to close her ports 
to Great Britain, 209 ; sails on the 
Egyptian Expedition, 276, 278, 281, 
283-285, 287-290 ; landing in Egypt, 
290 ; Nelson's appreciation of the ef- 
fect upon, by the Battle of the Nile, 
312, 316, 348, 419-422; expedition 
into Syria, 418 ; e.scape from Egypt 
to France, 419, after defeating a 
Turkish army in Aboukir Bay, 419 ; 
defeats Austrians at Marengo, 436 ; 
influence upon the formation of the 



Baltic Coalition, 458, 459; threats 
of invading England, 1801, 506-509 ; 
his dominant situation on the Conti- 
nent in 1803, 557-564; firmness of 
intention to invade England, 1803- 
1805, 561-564, 567, 578, 586; his 
policy and Nelson's counter pro- 
jects, 560-564 ; Nelson's singularly 
accurate prediction of future of, 
564, 630 ; Nelson's intuitive recogni- 
tion of probable action of, 630, 635 ; 
vast combinations for invasion of 
England, 632-636, 646, 647; his 
understanding of the value of sear 
povver evidenced, 644. 

" Boreas," British frigate, commanded 
by Nelson, 1784-1787, 38-56, 80. 

Brereton, British general, erroneous 
information sent to Nelson, 658- 
660 ; Nelson's expressions of annoy- 
ance, 660, 667, 669, 675; comment 
upon his mistake, 675, note. 

Bronte, Duke of, Sicilian title and es- 
tate conferred upon Nelson, 406 ; his 
form of signature afterwards, 406 
and note. 

Brueys, French admiral, commander- 
in-chief at the Battle of the Nile, 
295 ; his dispositions for action, 
295-296. 

Bruix, French admiral, commander- 
in-chief of a French fleet entering 
the Mediterranean from Brest, 357, 
362, 364, 366 ; effect of his approach 
upon proceedings in Naples, 393 ; 
his return to Brest, 397, 399; Nel- 
son's comment upon his conduct, 
586. 

" Bucentaure," French flagship at 
Trafalgar, Nelson's encounter with, 
731-733; surrender of, 737. 



Cadiz, Nelson's visit to, 88 ; his opera- 
tions before, under Jervis, 244-246, 
247-250 ; his watch before, prior to 
Trafalgar, 693, 707-711; effect of 
position of, upon the Battle of 
Trafalgar, 718, 720, 721, 727. 

"Qa Ira," French ship-of-the-line, Nel- 
son's action with, in the " Agamem- 
non," 139-141 ; his credit for, 147. 

Calder, Sir Robert, British admiral, 
captain of the fleet at the Battle 
of St. Vincent, 240, 241 ; his inde- 
cisive action with the allied fleets. 



748 



INDEX 



in 1805, 666, 671 ; popular outcry 
against, 667, 673, 679, 704 ; Nelson's 
relations with, 376, 679, 683, 704- 
707 ; recalled to England for trial, 
704. 
Calvi, town in Corsica, Nelson at the 
siege of, 116-126; loses there his 
right eye, 119. 
Canary Islands. See Teneriffe. 
Capel, Thomas B., British captain, 
bearer of despatches after the Bat- 
tle of the Nile, 308, 317; mentioned, 
303, note, 589. 
" Captain," British ship-of-the-liue, 
carries Nelson's broad pendant as 
commodore, 196; at the Battle of 
St. Vincent, 231-237 ; injuries re- 
ceived there, 243 ; Nelson quits her 
for the " Theseus," 243, 247. 
Caracciolo, Francesco, commodore in 
the Neapolitan navy, wounded feel- 
ings at the distrust of his Court, 
334 ; appreheusiou, trial, aud execu- 
tion of, 389-390; comments upon 
Nelson's part in this transaction, 
390-393. 
Castlereagh, Lord, British Minister, 
Nelson's shrewd prediction to him 
of the results of the Orders in 
Council affecting neutral flags, and 
of the License System, 685. 
Clarence, Duke of. See William 

Henry. 
Codrington, Edward, British captain, 
expressions quoted : about Nelson's 
seamanship, 13 ; his family ties and 
love of glory, 61, 553; appearance 
of Nelson's ships, 650 ; graciousness 
of Nelson's bearing, 694. 
Collingwood, Cuthbert, British ad- 
miral, close connection between his 
career and that of Nelson, 18; 
strong expression of regard for 
Nelson 21; association with Nelson 
in the West Indies, 45 and note, 46, 
54 ; at the Battle of Cape St. Vin- 
cent, 230, 233, 236, 240, 241 ; strong' 
expression upou the credit due to 
Nelson, 232 ; his account of Nelson's 
cold reception at Court, in 1800, 
447 ; sent from England to West 
Indies in 1805, 669; hearing that 
Nelson is gone thither, takes posi- 
tion off Cadiz instead, 669 ; corre- 
spondence with Nelson on his return, 
669-671; left by Nelson in charge 



off Cadiz, 674, 675 ; force collected 
under, when allies enter Cadiz, 689 ; 
characteristics, 693 ; part assigned 
to, by Nelson, for Trafalgar, 702- 
703 ; his part at Trafalgar, 718-720, 
725, 727, 730, 731 ; Nelson's praise 
of, 731 ; his sympathy with Nelson, 
731 ; notified of Nelson's fatal 
wound, 739. 
Convoys, Nelson's comments on the 
behavior of, 28 ; gives one to Ameri- 
can merchant ships against French 
privateers, 247 ; difliculty of provid- 
ing in the Mediterranean, 610-612. 
Copenhagen, defences of, in 1801, 466, 
473, 474, 477, 478; Battle of. Nel- 
son's plans for, 477-479 ; the battle, 
479-487 ; importance and difficulty 
of the achievemeut, 488, 489 ; fail- 
ure of the British Government to 
reward, 489, 542 ; silence of the city 
of London, 542 ; Nelson's action, 
542-546. 
Corfu, transferred, with the other 
loniau Islands, from Venice to 
France, 271 ; Nelson's concern for, 
after the Battle of the Nile, 315, 
347, 348; taken by Kusso-Turkish 
forces, 347 ; British precautions 
against re-occupation by French, 
561 ; concern of Nelson for, while 
commander-in-chief in the Mediter- 
ranean, 1803-180.5, 564, 566, 571, 
631; resort of privateers, 610; 
Napoleon's estimate of, 631. 
Cornwallis, William, British admiral, 
kindness to Nelson in early life, 26 
and note, 39 ; Nelson directed to 
communicate with, off Brest in 
1803, 565 ; orders seizure of Spanish 
treasure-ships, 618 ; Nelson directs 
that the order be disobeyed, 618; 
services of, off Brest, 634" ; Nelson 
joins, off Brest, on return from 
West Indies, 672, 675 ; authorizes 
Nelson to return to England, 675. 
Correspondence, Nelson's extensive, 
while in the Mediterranean, 566; 
his maimer of conducting, 602-605. 
Corsica, Island of. Nelson ordered to 
coast of, 98, 99 ; Nelson's connection 
Avith operations there in 1794, 101- 
126 ; strategic value of, to British, 
132-135 ; government as a British 
de])endency, 135 ; dissatisfaction of 
natives with British rule, 197; ten- 



INDEX 



74d 



uic uf, dependent ou support of the 
natives, 200 ; abandonment of, bv 
the British, 210, 214-217; threat- 
ened invasion of Sardinia from, 
578. 
" Curieux," Britisli brig of war, 
sent by Nelson to England from 
West Indies with news of his move- 
ments, 661 ; falls in with combined 
fleets, 671 ; Nelson's comment on 
hearing the fact, 671, 673. 



Davison, Alexander, intimate friend 
of Nelson, Nelson expresses de- 
spondency to, 353 ; the " Lady of 
the Admiralty's " coolness, 446 ; 
account given by, of George III. 
speaking of Nelson, 447 ; Nelson's 
mention of Sir Hyde Parker to, 462, 
463, 465, 544; aids Nelson pecuni- 
arily, 526 ; charged by Nelson witli 
a final message to Lady Nelson, 531 ; 
Nelson's expressions to, about St. 
Vincent, 543 ; about treatment of 
himself by the government, 549 ; 
" Salt beef and the French fleet," 
656 ; about General Brereton, 675. 

De Vins, Austrian general, commands 
on the Riviera in 1795, 159; Nel- 
son's association with, 159, 165-168, 
and opinion of, 168. • 

Dresden, Nelson's visit to, in 1800, 
441-443. 

Drinkwater, Colonel, returns from 
Elba in frigate with Nelson, 1797, 
223 ; incidents narrated of the voy- 
.ige, 227-229 ; witnesses the Battle 
of St. Vincent, 240 ; interview Mith 
Nelson after the battle, 242 ; char- 
acteristic anecdote of Nelson, 264. 

Dnckwortli, Sir J. T., British admiral, 
association with Nelson during 
operations in the Mediterranean, 
1799, 358, 360, 362, 394, 409. 

Dundas, British general, command- 
ing troo])s in Corsica, 104 ; con- 
troversy with Lord Hood, 104; Nel- 
son's opinion, 104. 



Egypt, Bonaparte's expedition to, 
in 1798, 276-290; Nelson's pursuit, 
280-282, 283-289; Nelson's con- 
stant attention to, 316, 346, 348, 
560, 562, 575, 577, 584, 585, 586, 



621, 639, 640, 643-645, 648, 662; 
his urgency that the French army 
be not permitted to leave, 420-422. 

El Arish, Convention of, signed, 421. 

Elba, island of, Nelson's opinion of 
importance of, 202 ; his seizure of, 
202 ; evacuation of, 221-225, 245. 

"Elephant," British ship-of-the-line. 
Nelson's flagship at Copenhagen, 
472, 475, 479-487. 

Elgin, Earl of, British ambassador to 
'I'urkey, opinion upon the state of 
things at Palermo during Nelson's 
residence there, 340 ; Nelson's 
divergence of opinion from, con- 
cerning the French quitting Egypt, 
420-422. 

Elliot, Sir Gilbert, afterwards Lord 
Minto, British representative in 
Corsica, 1794, 102; Viceroy of 
Corsica, 131 ; friendship between 
him and Nelson, 131, 235, 240, 242, 

535, 617, 682; Nelson's correspond- 
ence Avith, 147, 173, 202, 204, 235, 
240, 304, 407, 427, 435, 583, 617; 
directs the seizure of Elba by Nelson, 
202 ; present at the evacuation of 
Corsica, 215, and of Elba, 223; 
pa.ssage with Nelson to Gibraltar, 
223-229 ; witnesses the Battle of St. 
Vincent, 235, 240 ; advocacy of 
Nelson's claims to distinction, 242, 
346 ; incidental mention of Nelson 
by, 263, 433, 442, 483, 536, 551, 
552, 666, 682, 687, 689; mention of 
Lady Hamilton by, 325-327, 442, 

536, 682, 689 ; " ambassador to 
A^ienna, 339, note. 

Elliot, Hugli, British minister at 
Dresden during Nelson's visit in 
1800. 441-442 ; minister to the two 
Sicilies during Nelson's Mediter- 
ranean command, 1803-1805, 566, 
668 ; takes passage out with Nelson, 
566 ; correspondence between Nel- 
son and, quoted, 567, 568, 570, 
584, 585, 588, 590, 604, 614, 624, 
628, 629, 648, 663, 668, 686. 

Este, Lambton, association with Nel- 
son mentioned, 621-623. 



Fischer, Commodore, commander- 
in-chief of Danish fleet at the Battle 
of Copenhagen, 485 ; Nelson's con- 
troversy with, on account of his 



750 



INDEX 



official report of the battle, 497- 
498. 

Fitzharris, Lord, British attache at 
Vienna during Nelson's visit, 1800, 
anecdotes of Nelson and of Lady 
Hamilton, 439, 440. 

Flag of Truce, incident of the, at 
Copenhagen, 485-488. 

" Fleet in Being," indications of Nel- 
son's probable opinion of its deter- 
rent effect, 11.5-117, 136, 15.5, 156, 
167, 168, 181, 182, 184, 185, 186, 
19.3, 661-665. 

Freinautle, British captain, with Nel- 
son, at Teneriffe, 256-260; at 
Copenhagen, 475 ; letter from Nel- 
son to, concerning Calder, 676. 

Frigates, Nelson's sense of the impor- 
tance of, and of small cruisers 
generally, 289, 290. 291, 610-613, 
638, 655, 689, 708, 709. 



" Genereux," French ship-of-the-line, 
escape of, after the Battle of the 
Nile, 305, 306; capture of the 
" Leander " by, 308, 347 ; captured 
by Nelson's squadron off Malta, 425- 
428. 

Genoa, importance of, to the South of 
France, 90, 91; difficult neutrality 
of, 134, 135, 157-164, 169-171, 186, 
190, 192-194, 199, 336; closes her 
ports against Great Britain, 1796, 
208-209 ; siege of city, in 1800, 428 ; 
surrender of, by Massena, 436 ; 
identified with France as the 
Liguriau Republic, 559, 560 ; ports 
of, blockaded by Nelson, 591, 599, 
600. 

George III., King of Great Britain, 
prejudice of, against Nelson in early 
life, 75, 76, 243 ; subsequent appro- 
bation, 151, 243, 263; interest in 
Nelson manifested by, 447 ; subse- 
quent coldness of, toward Nelson, 
apparently in consequence of his 
relations to Lady Hamilton, 447. 

Gillespie, Dr., account of life on board 
Nelson's flagship by, 594-596, 607, 
615. 

Goodall, Admiral, at the partial fleet 
action of March 14, 1795, 143, 144 ; 
his support of Nelson when under 
public censure for failure to find tlie 
French fleet, 286. 



Gore, British captain, commands 
scjuadron of frigates under Nelson's 
orders, outside Straits of Gibraltar, 
612 ; letter of Nelson to, concerning 
three frigates attacking a ship-of- 
the-line, 613 ; ordered by Nelson to 
disobey orders of Admiral Corn- 
wallis to seize Spanish treasure- 
sliips, 618. 

Graves, Bear Admiral, second to Nel- 
son at tlie Battle of Copenhagen, 
475, 482 ; made Knight of the Bath 
in reward for tlie action, 489. 

Gravina, Spanish admiral, commander 
of the S))auish contingent, and 
second in command of the com- 
bined fleet, at Trafalgar, 713, 718, 
720, 741. 

Grevjlle, Charles, nephew to Sir 
William Hamilton, relations of, 
to Emma Hart, afterwards Lady 
Hamilton, 319-325. 



Hallowet.l, British captain, imder 
Nelson at the siege of Calvi, 119; 
commands the " Swiftsure " at tlie 
Battle of the Nile, 302. . 

Hamilton, Emma, Lady, Nelson's first 
meeting with, 94 ; letter of Nelson 
to, 291 ; conduct of, in Naples, upon 
receipt of jiews of the Battle of the 
Nile, 317; Nelson's second meeting 
with, 318; previous history of, 319- 
325 ; married to Sir William Hamil- 
ton, 323 ; personal appearance and 
characteristi(;s, 325-327, 328-330, 
441-443, 532, 536, 594, 682, 689; 
influence at Court of Naples, 327, 
364, 393 ; influence upon Nelson, 
330-332, 393, 394, 395, 424, 428- 

429, 437, 438, 439, 471, 686-687; 
intermediary between the Court and 
Nelson, 333,"364, 366 ; efficiency dur- 
ing the fliglit of the Court from 
Naples, 338 ; scandal concerning 
lier relations to Nelson, 339-341, 

430, 433, 434, 446-448, 536, 555, 
556 ; love of play, 340, 440 ; Nel- 
son's infatuation for, 325, 361, 393, 
428, 4.30, 433, 434, 437, 439, 440, 449, 
450, 471, 480, 536, 682; with Sir 
William Hamilton accompanies Nel- 
son to Naples in flagship, 367 ; 
usefulness there, 395 ; Nelson asks 
of the Czar insignia of the Order 



INDEX 



751 



of Malta for, 413 ; accompanies 
Nelson, with her husband, on a 
trip to Malta, 434, and on tlie re- 
turn journey to England, 435-443 ; 
her reception by the London world, 
446-448, 536 ; Lady Nelson's atti- 
tude towards, 444-446, 449, 450; 
attitude of Nelson's father towards, 
452, 554; of other meml)ers of 
Nelson's family, 452, 556, G82 ; 
believed by Nelson to be the motlier 
of Horatia, 453-455 ; Nelson's letters 
to, during Copenliagen expedition, 
463, 464, 466, 472, 480, 494, 495, 499, 
504, 531 ; letters to, while com- 
manding preparations against inva- 
sion, 521, 522, 521-526,' 531, 532; 
purchases the Merton property for 
Nelson, 532-535 ; disturbed relations 
with her husband, 532-533; death 
of husband, 555 ; Nelson's letters to, 
during his command in the Medi- 
terranean, 1803-1805, 570, 593 594, 
622, 624, 642, 693, 704, 705; Nel- 
son's anxiety about confinement of, 
583; birth of a second child, 583; 
allowance made by Nelson to, 615; 
Nelson's last letter to, 714; be- 
queathed by Nelson to his Country, 
723, 735, 740 ; mentioned by Nel- 
son, when dying, 738, 740. 
Hamilton, Sir William, British min- 
ister to Naples, Nelson's first asso- 
ciation with, 94 ; Nelson's corre- 
spondence with, during the Nile 
campaign, 280, 281, 282, 291-293, 
315, 318; Nelson's association with, 
while in command in Neapolitan 
waters, 1798-1800, 318, 331, 333, 
334, 336, 338-341, 366, 367, 371, 
374, 377-379, 387, 395, 421, 423, 
427-430, 434 ; relations to Amy 
Lyon, otherwise Emma Hart, prior 
to their marriage, 321-323; mar- 
riage to Emma Hart, 323; oner- 
ous increase of diplomatic duties 
after the French Revolution began, 
328 ; influence of Lady Hamilton 
upon, 328, 333, 340, 442 ; apparent 
unfitness for his position, 328, 340, 
341 ; accompanies Nelson to Naples 
in flagship, 367 ; assertion of Nelson's 
full powers at this time by , 387 ; share 
of, in the transactions at Naples, 
395 ; recalled to England, 434 ; ac- 
companied by Nelson on return to 



England, 435-443; Nelson takes 
up his residence with, 529 ; with 
Lady Hamilton goes to live with 
Nelson at Merton, 532 ; disturbed 
relations of, with his wife, 533-535; 
death of, 555 ; his professed confi- 
dence in Nelson, 556. 

Hardy, Captain Thomas M , captured 
in the prize " Sabina," 222 ; ex- 
changed, 225 ; narrow escape from 
recapture, 227 ; commander of the 
brig " Mutine," 276 ; accompanies 
Nelson in Baltic expedition, 460, 
476; continuous association with 
Nelson after St. Vincent, 737 ; 
presence at Nelson's death-bed, 
737-740 ; incidentally mentioned, 
595, 603, 613, 691, 717, 722, 726, 
732-735, 737. 

Hart, Emma, name assumed by Lady 
Hamilton, prior to marriage, 321. 

Haslewood, anecdote of final breach 
between Lord and Ladv Nelson, 
450. 

Hillyar, Captain James, anecdotes of 
Nelson, 553, note, 606-608. 

" Hinchinbrook," British frigate, com- 
manded by Nelson in youth, 18-26 ; 
singular coincidence that both Nel- 
son and Collingwood were made 
post into this ship, 18. 

Hood, Admiral, Lord, opinion of Nel- 
son in early life, 29 ; Nelson obtains 
transfer of his ship to the fleet of, 
31-33 ; relations of Nelson with, 
prior to French Revolution, 32, 33, 
35, 39, 59, 7.5, 76, 92 ; appointed to 
command the Mediterranean fleet, 
1793, 87; services off Toulon, 88- 
100; employs Nelson on detached 
service, at Naples, 92, at Tunis, 97, 
around Corsica, 97-103; reduction 
of Corsica, 101-126 ; return to Eng- 
land, 126, 127; removed from the 
Mediterranean command, 149 ; Nel- 
son's opinion of, 102, 149, 150; 
Nelson's relations with, during his 
Mediterranean command, 96, 99, 
102, 104, 106, 126; at siege of Bas- 
tia, 110-112; at siege of Calvi, 121, 
123; inadequate mention of Nel- 
son's services in Corsica by, 112-114, 
130, 131 ; differences with Colonel 
Moore, 122-124; opinion of Nel- 
son's merits at the Battle of the 
Nile, 308-310; presents Nelson ia 



•752 



INDEX 



the House of Peers, when takiug 
his seat as a viscount, 541. 

Hood, Captain Sir Samuel, pilots 
Nelson's fleet into Aboukir Bay, 
297 ; share of, in the Battle of the 
Nile, 298, 299, 306 ; left to blockade 
Alexandria, 313, 335; incidentally 
mentioned, 344, 346, 539. 

Horatia, Nelson's dau<>-liter, birth of, 
453; mentioned, 454, 594, 690; 
Nelson's last letter to, 715 ; desired 
by him to use the name of " Nelson " 
only, 715; beiineathed by Nelson to 
his Country, 723, 735 ; mentioned 
by Nelson in dying, 710. 

Hoste, Captain William, midsliipman 
with Nelson from 1793 to 1797, 260 ; 
describes Nelson's return on board 
wounded, after the affair at Santa 
Cruz, 260 ; lieutenant, and com- 
mander of the " Mutine," 317; re- 
ception at Naples by Lady Hamil- 
ton, 317; curious anecdote of, 627- 
628. 

Hotham, Vice-Admiral, second in 
command to Lord Hood, mistaken 
action of, 115, 116; Nelson's com- 
ment on, 115, 128; succeeds Hood 
as commander-in-chief, 127 ; en- 
counter with Frencli Toulon fleet, 
137-145 ; Nelson's urgency with, 143, 
and criticism of his action in this case, 
144-146; inadequate military con- 
ceptions of, 146, 155, 169 ; difficulties 
of, recognized by Nelson, 146 ; 
second encounter with the French, 
151-154; incompetent action, and 
Nelson's criticism, 153-155; dis- 
astrous results of inefficiency of, 
155, 156, 169, 173, 179 ; sends" Nel- 
son to co-operate with Austrians on 
the Kiviera, 157 ; Nelson's opinion 
of his "political courage," 161; 
personal dislike to co-operation of, 
163, 168 and note ; inadequate sup- 
port given to Nelson by, 168, 169, 
172; Nelson's opinion of the conse- 
qixent mishaps, 155, 169, 170, 177; 
relieved b}' Sir Hyde Parker, 170. 

Hotham, Sir William, criticism of 
Nelson's conduct towards Lady Nel- 
son, 448 ; mention of Lady Nelson's 
conduct after the separation, 450; 
Nelson's aptitude at forwarding 
public service, 599. 

Howe, Admiral, Lord, appoints Nel- 



son to the command of the " Boreas," 
38 ; kind reception of Nelson in 
1787, 70; victory of June 1st, 1794, 
Nelson's opinion of, 128; Nelson's 
e.\pression to, about the Battle of 
the Nile, 304 ; opinion of, concern- 
ing the Battle of the Nile, 305, 311. 

Hughes, Sir Kichard, commander-in- 
chief of the Leeward Islands Station, 
1784-1786, 39; Nelson's difficulties 
with, 42-45, and 46-50; his attitude 
towards Nelson in the matter of 
enforcing the Navigation Act, 50, 
52, 54 ; Nelson's reconciliation with, • 

62. 

Hughes, Lady, account of Nelson as a 
very young captain, 39. 



loNiAX Islands, Corfu, etc., objects 
of Nelson's solicitude, 315, 335, 347, 
348, 630, 631 ; Eussian occupation 
of, 347, 416; importance of, to 
Bonajjarte, 563, 564, 571, 610; tem- 
porary political name of Eepublic 
of the Seven Islands, 566. 

Ireland, Nelson's speculations as to 
Bonaparte's intentions against, 584, 
585, 649, 673; Collingwood's, 669, 
670. 



Jervis, Admiral Sir John, afterwards 
Earl of St. Vincent, 29; com- 
mander-in-chief in the West Indies, 
98 ; commander-in-chief in the 
Mediterranean, 174, 180; Nelson's 
first meeting with, 183 ; desire of, to 
have Nelson remaiu under his com- 
mand, 184, 195, 218; his close 
blockade of Toulon, 196, 206; Nel- 
son's lofty opinion of, 208, 212; 
forced to concentrate his fleet owing 
to the attitude of Spain, 209, 210; 
embarrassment caused to, by conduct 
of Admiral Man, 209, 216; ordered 
to evacuate the Mediterranean, 210 ; 
retires to Gibraltar, 216 ; sends Nel- 
son back to superintend the evacuar 
tion of Elba, 221 ; his opinions of 
Nelson, as expressed, 223, 240, 241, 
251, 255, 261, 276, 311, 345, 462, 
494, 504, 505, 506, 572, 573; re- 
joined bv Nelson, off Cape St. Vin- 
cent, 229; Battle of Cape St 



INDEX 



753 



Vincent, 229-238 ; operations after 
the battle, 244-246; blockade and 
bombardment of Cadiz, 247-251 ; 
sends Nelson to 'J'eneriffe, 255, 256; 
sympathy with Nelson in bis defeat 
and wound, 261 ; created Earl of 
St. Vincent, 261 ; rejoined by Nel- 
son after convalescence, 265 ; ex- 
pressions of satisfaction thereat, 
265 ; aversion of, to extending the 
operations of the fleet, 273; sends 
Nelson to watch the Toulon arma- 
ment, 265, 276 ; denounced for 
choosing so young a flag-oificer, 
288 ; opinion of the Battle of tlie 
Nile, 311 ; orders Nelson to return 
to the western Mediterranean, 313 ; 
tlie affair of Sir Sidney Smith, 343, 
344 ; absolute confidence of, in Nel- 
son, 350; action upon tlie incursion 
of Bruix's fleet, 360-362 ; gives up 
the command of the Mediterranean, 
363 ; Nelson's distress and vexation, 
363, 628 ; succeeded in command by 
Lord Keith, 363, 366; takes com- 
mand of Channel Fleet, 1800,453; 
Nelson joins him as subordinate, 
453 ; stern resolution in face of the 
Baltic Coalition, 460; becomes First 
Lord of the Admiralty, 462; Nel- 
son's gradual alienation from, 464, 
523, 524, 543, 544, 546, 549, 551 ; 
full approval of Nelson's course in 
the Baltic by, 467, 494 ; indisposi- 
tion to grant rewards for services at 
Copenhagen, 489, 543, 544, 546 ; 
reluctance to relieve Nelson, 504 ; 
insists with Nelson that he must ac- 
cept and retain command of prepara- 
tions against invasion, 506, 523, 528 ; 
correspondence with Nelson on this 
subject, 506-511, 518, 519, 520, 522, 
526 ; divergence of views from Nel- 
son's on the subject of a flotilla, 
516, 517; misunderstanding be- 
tween Nelson and, on the subject of 
medals for Copenhagen, 543, 544, 
546 ; sends Nelson to the INIediterra- 
nean as commander-in-chief, 553 ; 
injury to Navy from excessive 
economy of, 550, 571 ; correspond- 
ence of Nelson with, while com- 
mander-in-chief in the Mediterra- 
nean, quoted, 565, 572, 573, 586 ; 
retires from the Admiralty, and 
succeeded by Lord Melville, 593 



48 



Keats, Captain Richard G., favorite 
with Nelson, 654 ; letters from Nel- 
son to, 654, 657, 658, 679. 

Keith, Admiral, Lord, second in com- 
mand to St. Vincent in the Mediter- 
ranean, 362 ; St. Vincent relin- 
quishes command to, 364, 366 ; 
characteristics of, 364 ; friction be- 
tween Nelson and, 364-366 ; advice 
of, to Nelson, concerning executions 
in Naples, 394 ; Nelson's disobe- 
dience to orders of, 396-404 ; pur- 
sues coml)ined fleets to Englisli 
Channel, 398, 416; inferiority of, 
to Nelson, in military sagacity, 400, 
437; absence from Mediterranean 
prolonged, 408 ; resumes command 
in the Mediterranean, 423 ; Nelson's 
resentment at his return, 407, 423 ; 
relations between the two, 423, 427- 
430, 431, 43.5-437 ; orders Nelson to 
assume personal charge of blockade 
of Malta, 428 ; dissatisfaction of, 
with Nelson's course, 435-437 ; dis- 
pleasure of Queen of Naples with, 
437 ; measures of, to prevent French 
encroachments during Peace of 
Amiens, 561 ; successful resistance 
of, to the Admiralty's attempt to 
reduce his station, 616. 

Kleber, French general, succeeds 
Bonaparte in the command in 
Egypt, 419 ; convinced of the hope- 
lessness of retaining Egypt, 419; 
makes the Convention of El Arish 
witli the Turks, 421-422. 

Knight, Miss, friend and companion 
of the Hamiltons, 438 ; accompanies 
them and Nelson on journey to 
England in 1800, 438-446 ; incidents 
mentioned by, relative to this period, 
438,439,446'; testimony to Nelson's 
love for his wife, prior to meeting 
with Lady Hamilton, 452. 



Latouche-Treville, French ad- 
miral, in command off Boulogne, 
and successful repulse of British 
boats, 519-522, 587 ; in command of 
Toulon fleet, 587 ; Nelson's attempts 
to lure out of port, 587-589, 590, 
591 ; reports that Nelson retreated 
before him, and Nelson's wrath, 
590-591 ; death of, 623. 

Layman, Lieutenant, and Commander, 



754 



INDEX 



serving with Nelson on board the 
"St. George," 1801, 464; anecdotes 
of Nelson by, 464, 466, 539, 707 ; loses 
the brig " Raven " when carrying 
despatches, 642 ; characteristic let- 
ter of Nelson in behalf of, 642-643. 

"Leander," British fifty-guu ship, 
Campaign and Battle of the Nile, 
279,301,302; sent with despatches 
to Gibraltar, 308 ; captured by the 
" Ge'ncreux," 308 ; recaptured by 
Russians, and restored to Great 
Britain, 347. 

Leghorn, Nelson's visits to, 126, 128, 
137, 178; importance of, to the 
French, 134, 136, and to the Brit- 
ish fleet, 137, 197, 198; occupation 
of, by Bonaparte, in 1796, 198; 
blockade of, by Nelson, 201-202 ; 
Nelson's project for an assault of, 
203-205 ; occupation of, by Neapoli- 
tans, in 1798,336, 348;" blockade 
of, recommended by Nelson in 1803, 
559. 

Lindholm, Danish officer, aide-de- 
camp to Crown Prince at the 
B.attle of Copenhagen, sent to Nel- 
son with reply to the message under 
flag of truce, 487 ; association with 
the negotiations, 488, 491, 493; 
testimony of, to Nelson's motives in 
sending flag of truce, 488 ; corre- 
spondence of, with Nelson, relative 
to the conduct of Commodore 
Fischer, 497, 498. 

Linzee, Commodore, Nelson serves 
under, on mission to Tunis, 96 ; Nel- 
son's causeless dissatisfaction with 
conduct of, 97. 

Lisbon, headquarters of Briti.sh fleet 
after evacuation of the Mediter- 
ranean, 222, 244, 265 ; forbidden to 
British in 1803,559. 

Locker, Captain William, Nelson's 
early commander and life-long 
friend, 14-17, 18. 

Louis, Captain Thomas, Nelson's ex- 
pressions of obligation to, at the 
Battle of the Nile, 300. 

" Lowestoffe," British frigate. Nelson 
commissioned lieutenant into, and 
incidents on board of, 14-17; his 
place on board of, filled by Colling- 
wood, 18. 

Lyon, Amy, maiden name of Lady 
Hamilton, 319. 



Mack, Austrian general, association 
with Nelson before and after the 
disastrous Neapolitan campaign of 
1798, 336-337. 

]\Ladalena Islands, situation of, and 
importance to Nelson's fleet, 576- 
578, 580; Nelson there receives 
news of Villeneuve's first sailincr, 
631. ^ 

Malmesbury, Lady, mention of Lady 
Hamilton by, 324, 327 ; of Nelson 
and Hyde Parker, 462. 

Malta, seizure of, by Bonaparte, 281, 
283 ; Nelson's estimate of the 
importance of, 282, 349, 415, 570, 
573 ; his concern for, 315, 316, 355, 
409, 411, 416, 611, 674; directs 
blockade of, 316, by Portuguese 
squadron, 317; blockade of, 335, 
.336, 350, 360, 362, 405, 410-416, 
423, 424, 435, 436 ; Nelson's jealousy 
of Russian designs upon, 348-350 ; 
capture near, of the " Genereux," 
424-428, and of the " Guillaume 
Tell," 430 ; Nelson ordered by Keith 
to take personal charge of Itlockade 
of, 428 ; Nelson quits blockade of, 
430, 431 ; takes ships off blockade, 
contrary to Keith's wishes, 435- 
437 ; surrender of, to the Briti.sli, 
459 ; effect of surrender of, upon 
the Czar, 459 ; Nelson's views as 
to the ultimate disposition of, 547 ; 
Nelson's visit to, in 1803, 566, 570; 
strategic importance of, 560, 571, 
629. 

Man, Admiral Robert, in command 
under Hotham, at the fleet action 
of July 13, 1795, 153 ; Nelson's com- 
mendation of, 153; subsequent mis- 
takes of, iu 1796, 209, 211, 213, 216 ; 
Nelson's expressions concerning, 
210, 211 ; allusion to, 421. 

Marengo, Battle of. Nelson in Leg- 
horn at the time of, 436, 557. 

Maritimo, Island of, strategic centre 
for a rendezvous, SCO, 36.5, 366. 

Massena, French general, defeats the 
combined Austrians and Russians 
near Zurich, 417 ; Nelson likened to, 
450. 

Matcham, Mrs., Nelson's sister, atti- 
tude towards Lady Hamilton, 452, 
556, towards Lady Nelson, 556 ; 
anecdote of Nelson transmitted bv, 
690. 



INDEX 



755 



Matcham, George, Nelson's uephew, 
letter of, dated 1861, giving recol- 
lections of Nelson, 536-538. 

Melville, Lord, Tirst Lord of the 
Admiralty, in succession to St. 
Vincent, reply to Nelson's appeal to 
reverse previous refusal of medals 
for Copenhagen, 546 ; Nelson's let- 
ter to, about his missing the French 
fleet, 642-643. 

Merton, Nelson's home in England, 
purchase of, by him, 526, 532, 533 ; 
life at, during Peace of Amiens, 
529-559 ; final stay at, 677-690. 

Messina, importance of, to the secur- 
itv of Sicily, Nelson's opinions, 354, 
357, 563, 567-569. 

Middleton, Sir Charles, afterwards 
Lord Barham, 72. See Barham. 

Miles, Commander Jeaffreson, able 
defence of Lord Nelson's action at 
Naples, in 1799, 392. 

Miller, Captain Ralph W., commands 
Nelson's flagship at the Battle of 
St. Vincent, 233, 239 ; at Teneriffe, 
258 ; at the Battle of tlie Nile, 303 ; 
Nelson's expressions of affection for 
and anxiety for a monument to, 
526. 

Minorca, Nelson ordered from Egypt 
for an expedition against, 313 ; 
Nelson directs his squadron upon, 
on receiving news of Bruix's incur- 
sion, , 358-360 ; Nelson's difference 
with Keith, as to the value and 
danger of, 396, 401, 407, 409 ; Nel- 
son's visit to, in 1799, 409,412, 414; 
restored to Spain at Peace of 
Amiens, 559. 

Minto, Lord. See Elliot, Sir Gilbert. 

Minto, Lady, mention of Nelson at 
Palermo, in letters of, 339, 340 ; at 
Leghorn, 337; at Vienna 338-340. 

Moore, Colonel, afterwards Sir John, 
102; friction between Lord Hood 
and, in Corsica, 120-124; Nelson's 
agreement, in the main, with Hood's 
views, 122, 123, 124. 

Morea, Nelson's anxieties about, 562. 
563, 571, 577, 578, 585, 631, 639, 
643, 648. 

Moutray, Captain, Nelson's refusal to 
recognize pendant of, as commodore, 
42-45 ; nndi.'ftnrbed friendship be- 
tween Nelson and, 44. 

Moutray, Mrs., Nelson's affection nnd 



admiration for, 44, 45 ; CoUingwood 
writes to, after Nelson's death, 45. 

Moutray, Lieutenant James, son of 
the above, dies before Calvi, while 
serving under Nelson, 45 ; Nelson 
erects a monument to, 126. 

Murray, Rear-Admiral George, Nel- 
son's pleasure at a visit from, 549 ; 
captain of the fleet to Nelson, 
1803-1805, 595, 598, 603, 606. 



Naples, city of, Nelson's first visit 
to,92-95 ; second visit, 31 7, 31 8,329- 
338 ; flight of the Court from, 338 ; 
the French enter, 342 ; the French 
evacuate, after their disasters in 
Upper Italy, 355 ; the royal power 
re-established in, 368, 369, 395; Nel- 
son's action in the Bay of, 367-395 ; 
Nelson leaves finally, for Palermo, 
405 ; Nelson's emotions upon distant 
view of, in 1803, 570. 

Naples, Kingdom of. See Two 
Sicilies. 

Naples, King of, Nelson's regrets for, 
upon tlie evacuation of the Medi- 
terranean, 1796, 211 ; gives orders 
that supplies be furnished Nelson's 
s(|uadr<)n before the Battle of the 
Nile, 281 ; Nelson's appeal to, to 
take a decided stand, 282; Nelson's 
indignation against, when difficulties 
about supplies are raised in Syra- 
cuse, 291 ; congratulates Nelson on 
the issue of the Battle of the Nile, 
310; visits Nelson's flag-ship, 318; 
distrust of his own officers, 334, 
356 ; under Nelson's influence, 
decides upon war with France, 334 ; 
Nelson promises support to, 334, 
335 ; decides to advance against 
French in Rome, 337 ; defeat and 
precipitate flight of, 337 ; takes 
refuge at I'alermo, 338 ; promises 
Nelson that Malta, being legiti- 
mately his territory, should not be 
transferred to any power withdut 
consent of England, 348 ; authorizes 
British flag to be hoisted in Malta 
alongside the Sicilian, 397 ; Nelson's 
devotion to, 350, 394, 401 ; personal 
timidity and apathy of, 357, 408, 
409 ; requests Nelson to go to 
Naples and support the royalists, 
364 ; gives Nelson full powers to act 



756 



INDEX 



as his representative in Naples, 386, 
387 ; goes himself to Bay of Naples, 
but remains on board Nelson's Hag- 
ship, 395 ; alienation of, from the 
queen, 395, 409 ; returns to Palermo, 
405 ; confers upon Nelson the duke- 
dom of Bronte, 405 ; Nelson renews 
correspondence with, in 1803,566; 
Nelson's apprehensions for, 567, 
571 ; Nelson keeps a ship-of-the-line 
always in the Ba}- of Naples to re- 
ceive ro)'al family, 568 ; application 
of, to the British government, to 
send Nelson back to the Mediterra- 
nean, after sick-leave, 614 ; agitation 
of, at the prospect of Nelson's depar- 
ture, 614; offers him a house at 
Naples or at Palermo, 614. 

Naples, Queen of, agitation at hear- 
ing of the Battle of the Nile, 318 ; 
friendship with Lady Hamilton, 
324, 328, 364, 395 ; characteristics 
of, 332, 409; association with Nel- 
son, 332-333 ; Nelson's devotion to, 
335; distrust of her subjects, 337, 
357, 409 ; flight to Palermo, 338 ; 
apprehensions of, 359 ; alienation 
of the King from, 395, 409 ; wisiies 
to visit Vienna, and is carried to 
Leghorn by Nelson, with two ships- 
of-theline, 435 ; refused further 
assistance of the same kind by Lord 
Keith, 437 ; her distress of mind, 
and anger with Keith, 437 ; proceeds 
to Vieima by way of Ancona, 438; 
Nelson renews correspondence with, 
in 1803-1805, 560, 566, 629. 

Nelson, Rev. Edmund, father of Lord 
Nelson, 4 ; Nelson and his wife live 
with, 1788-1793, 78; Mrs. Nelson 
continues to live with, after Nelson 
goes to the Mediterranean, 177, 
219, 263, 444-446, 452; his testi- 
mony to Lady Nelson's character, 
452 ; attitude towards Lady Hamil- 
ton, 452, 554 ; persuadeil of the 
absence of criminality in her rela- 
tions with Nelson, 452, 554 ; refuses 
to be separated from Lady Nelson, 
452, 554, 555 ; death of, 554 ; charac- 
ter of, 554, 555. 

Nel.sox, Horatio, Lord. 

Historical Sequence of Career : 

Parentage and birth, 4 ; first going to 
sea, 5 ; .service in merchantman, 8; 
cruise to the Arctic Seas, 10 ; to the 



East Indies, 12; acting lieutenant, 
13 ; lieutenant, 14 ; cruise to West 
Indies, 14; commander and post- 
captain, 18; Nicaraguan expedition, 
22 ; invalided home, 26 ; command 
of " Albemarle," 1781, 27 ; paid off 
and visits France, 35 ; cruise of the 
" Boreas," 1784, 38 ; refuses to obey 
orders of commander-in-chief, first, 
to recognize broad pendant of a cap- 
tain "not in commission," 42, and, 
second, when directed not to enforce 
the Navigation Act, 46-54 ; engage- 
ment to Mrs. Nisbet, 59 ; marriage, 
64 ; return toEuglaud.and "Boreas" 
paid off, 1787, 65-69 ; exposure of 
frauds in the West Indies, 68,70-74; 
half-pay, 1788-1792, 77-80; com- 
missions the " Agamemnon," Feb- 
ruary, 1793, 84; joins the Mediter- 
ranean fleet under Lord Hood, 88 ; 
constant detached service, 92-96 ; 
blockade of Corsica, 99 ; siege of 
Bastia. 103-113; siege of Calvi, 
11.6-125; loss of right eye, 119; 
refitting in Leghorn, 128-136 ; 
action of " Agememnon" with "(^a 
Ira," 139 ; partial fleet action of 
March 14, 1795, 141 ; partial fleet 
action of July 13, 1795, 152; com- 
mand of a detached squadron on the 
Riviera of GenoJi, imder Hotham, 

1795, 157-174, and under Jervis, 

1796, 183-195 ; hoists broad pendant 
as commodore, 188; leaves "Aga- 
memnon " for " Captain," 196 ; the 
blockade of Leghorn, 199; seizure 
of Elba, 202, and of Capraia, 209 ; 
evacuation of Corsica, 210-216; 
Britishfleet retires toGibraltar, 216 ; 
mission to evacuate Elba, 221; action 
with Spanish frigates, 221 ; rejoins 
Jervis off Cape St. Vincent, 229 ; 
Battle of Cape St. Vincent, 1797, 
229; made aKniglitof the Bath, 243; 
promoted rear-admiral, 244 ; mission 
into the Mediterranean, 246 ; 
blockade and bombardment of 
Cadiz, 247-250; the Teneriffe ex- 
pedition, 253 ; loses his right arm, 
259 ; invalided home, 262 ; rejoins 
Mediterranean fleet in the " Van- 
guard," 1798, 265 ; sent to watch 
tlie Toulon armament, 270; Cam- 
paign of the Nile, 276-313; Battle 
of the Nile, 294-306; severely 



INDEX 



757 



wounded in the head, 300 ; advanced 
to the peerage as Barou Nelson of 
the Nile, 309 ; arrives at Naples, 
317 ; meeting witli Lady Hamilton, 
318; urges Naples to <J^clare war 
against France, 333 ; war between 
Naples and France, 336 ; Neapolitan 
court carried to Palermo by, 338; 
residence at Palermo and contem- 
porary events, IT'Jil, — Sidney Smith 
and the Levant, 343; Ionian Islands, 
347 ; Malta, 348 ; Barbary States, 
350 ; about Najdes, 354 ; incursion of 
French fleet under Admiral Brnix, 
357-3G6 ; serious imputations against 
character of, 367-368 ; proceeds to 
Naples, 367 ; incident of the sur- 
render of the Neapolitan insurgents, 
368 ; the Caracciolo incident, 389 ; 
refuses to obey an order of Lord 
Keith, 396 : reiterated refusal, 398 ; 
left temporarily commander-in-chief 
by Keitli's departure, 405-423 ; 
created Duke of Bronte by King of 
Naples, 405; dissatisfaction at not 
being continued as commander-in- 
chief, 407 ; Keith's return, 1800, 423 ; 
superseded by Keith's return, 423 ; 
capture of " Le Genereux," 424 ; 
capture of " Le Guillaume Tell," in 
Nelson's absence, 430 ; returns to 
England through (jermauy, 1800, 
438-443 ; breach with Lady Nelson, 
443-453 ; promoted vice-admiral, 
453 ; hoists flag on board " San 
Josef," in the Channel Fleet, 
under Lord St. Vincent, 1801, 453 ; 
birth of the child Horatia, 453 ; the 
Baltic expedition, 456-504 ; Battle 
of Copenhagen, 473-487 ; incident 
of disobeying tlie signal to leave off 
action, 481 ; incident of the flag of 
truce, 485 ; created a viscount, 489 ; 
negotiations, 490; return to Englaiul, 
504; charged with defence of the 
coast of England against invasion, 
505-528 ; retirement from active 
service during the Peace of Amiens, 
529-554 ; interest in public questions, 
547-553 ; commissioned commander- 
in-chief in the Mediterranean, 
1803, 554 ; death of his father, 554 ; 
arrival in the Mediterranean, 565 ; 
the long watch off Toulon, 571-625 ; 
last promotion, Vice- Admiral of the 
White, 1804, 593; escape and pur- 



suit of the French Toulon fleet, 1805, 
636-656 ; follows it and its Spanish 
auxiliaries to the West Indies, 657 ; 
returns to Gibraltar, 668 ; carries 
his squadron to Cornwallis off Brest, 
653-675; returns himself to England, 
August, 1805, 675; last stay in 
England, 677-690 ; resumes com- 
mand in the Mediterranean, 693 ; 
the Battle of Trafalgar, 713 ; 
mortally wounded, 734 ; death of, 741 . 

Personal Characteristics : 

Appearance, in boyhood, 12; at twen- 
ty-one, 19; at twenty-four, 33; at 
twentv-seven, 57; at "thirty-six, 33; 
at forty-two, 439, 442 ; at forty -three, 
501 ; Liter years, 536-538, 598, 607, 
678, 688 ; expressiou, 539. 

Health, inherited delicacy of constitu- 
tion, 4; invalided from East Indies, 
12; from West Indies, 25, 26, 27; 
in Baltic, 28 ; in Canada, 31 ; men- 
tioned, 38, 64, 67, 79, 102, 125, 126, 
127, 176, 201, 251, 264, 315, 344, 354, 
403, 404, 428-432, 434, 453, 495, 500, 
503, 506, 522, 525 (sea-sickness), 582, 
583, 593, 596-598, 613, 6.53, 682, 
688 ; influence of active emplovment 
upon, 66, 67, 102, HI, 176, 20'l, 248, 
251, 688. 

Charm of manner and considerateness 
of action, 15, 21, 28, 40, 41, 44, 64, 
80, 92, 141, 248, 307, 408, 412, 413, 
439, 464, 465, 493, 503, 539, 544, 
597, 599, 605-607, 658, 669, 676, 
691, 693, 694, 704-707, 710, 722. 

Vanitv, aiul occasional petulance, 118, 
130,' 131,218-219,237-240,252,269, 
330, 332-333, 402-403, 407, 424, 427- 
428, 429, 432, 433, 437, 442, 448, 463, 
471, 494, 500-501, .522-525, 527, 605, 
606, 660, 679. 

Courage, illustrated, 7, 11, 16, 125, 
233, 249, 258-260, 262, 481, 486, 
491, 683, 709, 726. 

Love of glory and honor, 7, 17, 19, 21, 
25, 32, 34, 55, 65, 102, 106, 108, 114, 
118, 129, 130, 147, 148, 184, 205, 
212, 218, 239, 242, 244, 250, 258, 
264, 307, 359, 424, 450, 460, 481, 
494, 495, 500, 518, 553, 617, 693. 

Strength and tenacity of convictions, 
15,32,45,49, 53, .54, 63, 107, 108, 
116, 117, 192, 205, 208, 267, 268, 
286, 291, 294, 360, 365, 401, 420, 
422, 465, 467, 468, 471, 475, 484, 521, 



758 



INDEX 



560, 635, 637, 644, 647, 649, 651, 655, 
662, 663, 665, 672, 673, 676, 680. 

Sensitiveness to anxiety, perplexity, 
and censure, 53, 64, &8, 69, 79, 114, 
174, 179-181, 258, 261, 263, 291, 344, 
353, 359, 402, 403, 407, 413, 414, 415, 
429, 433, 447, 448, 463, 494, 501, 504, 
505, 524, 542-546, 549, 565, 582, 
591-593, 615, 638, 643, 648, 649, 
651, 653, 656, 660, 667, 668, 726. 

Daily life, examples of, and occupa- 
tio'ns, 119-120, 125, 177, 246-251, 
284-285, 314-316, 339-341, 503-504, 
532-540, 594-598, 602-605, 639, 682, 
684, 686-690, 694. 

Religious feelings, indications of, 147, 
224, 277, 278, 301 , 306-308, 540, 541, 
690, 728, 729, 731, 735, 740. 

Professional Characteristics : 

Duty, sense of, 7, 60, 93, 113, 192, 219, 
258, 359, 460, 491, 495, 506-507, 
593-594, 628, 653, 656, 729, 731, 
739-740. 

Exclusiveness and constancy of pur- 
pose, 13, 23, 29, 32, 33, 34, 53, 55, 
58, 64, 74, 84, 93, 95, 104, 108, 113, 
125, 129, 144, 188, 189, 191, 201, 
215, 218, 219, 224, 264, 269, 277, 
278, 279, 286, 289, 290, 294, 351, 
355, 412, 440, 460, 468, 469, 480, 
484, 496, 565, 594, 603-605, 635- 
649, 653, 673, 680, 739. 

Professional courage, 30, 63, 107, 108, 
139-141, 142, 188, 204, 211, 224, 
226, 227, 231-233, 249, 257, 280, 
285, 294, 361, 366, 427, 466-470, 
472, 479-484, 492, 496, 500, 517, 
520, 581, 634, 643, 644, 655, 664- 
666, 679, 680, 689, 706. 

Fearlessness of responsibility, 9, 16, 
42-44,45-51,54, 55, 106-108, 161- 
163, 188, 228, 231, 241, 285-287, 
396-403, 411, 467, 481-484, 569, 570, 
579, 611, 617-620, 624, 625, 626- 
628, 634, 654-656, 661, 665, 673. 

Diplomacy, natural aptitude for, and 
tact in dealing \vith men, 27-28, 
41, 56, 94, 120-122, 161-163, 176 
and note, 345-346, 407-409, 411- 
413, 415-416, 464-465, 466-467, 469, 
485-487,490-494. 502,517-518,569, 
574, 588-589, 599, 601-602, 606- 
608, 621, 624, 629-631, 669, 691, 
693-694 ; extensive cares in, 328, 
348-349, 3.5.3-354, 412, 413, 558- 
564, 566, 574, 598-599, 602-605. 



Fleet, when commander-in-chief, Ad- 
ministration of, 407, 413, 414, 418, 
503, 504, 518-520, 548-549, 572, 
573-575, 582, 598, 599, 603-605, 
606, 609-613, 640, 641, 646, 648, 
653, 654, 655, 667, 672, 673. 
Condition of, in tlie Mediterranean, 
1803-1805, 551, 571, 579, 634, 6.50. 
657, 668. 

Preservation and management of, 
571, 573, 575-578, 579-581, 583, 584, 
587-589, 591-592, 599, 600, 609- 
613, 620-621, 645, 646, 647, 649, 
657-658, 669, 673, 674, 684, 707- 
709, 711. 
Health of, 93, 94, 581-583, 668, 672. 

Strategic ideas, indications of, 23, 24, 
87, 90, 91, 97, 105, 115, 116, 128, 
135, 137, 146, 149, 150, 155, 156, 
163, 164-167, 170, 182-184, 185-186, 
196-197, 200, 204, 207-210, 210- 
213, 282, 284-288, 292, 312, 313, 
334, 349, 359-361, 365, 419-422, 
440, 465-467, 468-471, 496, 500,508, 
509-516, 520, 560-561, 562-564, 
573, 575-577, 578, 581, 584-586, 
616, 617, 634-636, 640, 644, 645, 
647-650, 654, 662, 664, 665, 672- 
674, 680, 681, 714. 

Tactical ideas, indications of, 29, 90, 
104, 108, 115, 139, 140, 142, 153- 
155, 185-186, 189, 192, 204, 208, 
230-232, 257, 279, 294-295, 299,303- 
305, 306, 360, 469, 471', 472-475, 
476-479, 483, 490, 510-511, 521, 
587-589, 591, 592, 600, 665, 688, 
694-704, 707, 708, 710, 711, 716- 
718, 719, 720, 721, 727. 

Kelson, Frances, Lady, wife of Lord 
Nelson, birth, parentage, and first 
marriage to Dr. Josiah Nisbet, 56 ; 
one son, Josiah Nisbet, 56 , widow- 
hood, 56; lives with her uncle, at Kevis, 
56; characteristics, 57-59, 61, 127, 
147, 330, 444, 450, 451; wooing of, by 
Nelson, 59-61 ; marriage to Nelson, 
and departure to England, 64 ; no 
children by Nelson, 77 ; resides 
with Nelson, in his father's house, 
78; lives with father of Nelson, 
during the latter's absences, 1793- 
1800, 177, 219, 263, 444-446, 452; 
letters of Nelson to, quoted, 94, 113, 
119, 125, 127, 147, 148, 177, 212, 
218-219, 251, 262, 278, 331, 445, 
529, 530 ; continued attachment of 



INDEX 



759 



I 



Nelsou to, on returuiiig borne in 

1797, 263, 270; Nelson's message 
to, when thinking himself mortally 
wounded at the Nile, 300 ; uneasi- 
ness of, at the reports of Nelson's 
intimacy witli Lady Hamilton, 339 ; 
apparent purpose of, to go to the 
Mediterranean, discouraged by Nel- 
son, 339 ; growing alienation of Nel- 
son from,' 361, 443-445, 446, 449, 
450 ; attitude of, towards Nelson, 
444, 445, 448, 450, 451 ; letters of, 
to Nelson, quoted, 445 ; Nelson's 
bearing towards, 446, 448 ; attitude 
of, towards Lady Hamilton, 449; 
final breach between Nelson and, 

450, 452, 529-531 ; later years of, 

451, 452 ; testimony to, of Nelsou 
and of his father, 452 ; Nelson's 
" letter of dismissal " to, and her 
endorsement thereon, 529, 530; date 
of death, 56 note. 

Nelson, Maurice, Nelson's eldest 
brother, quoted by Lady Nelson, 
529 and note. 

Niebuhr, the historian, accounts of the 
Battle of Copenhagen, quoted, 474, 
488, 501. 

Nile, Battle of the, 293-306. 

Nisbet, Captain Josiah, Nelson's step- 
son, birth and parentage, 56 ; goes 
to sea with Nelson in the " Agamem- 
non," 85 ; Lady Hamilton's kind- 
ness to, 94 ; good conduct of, at 
Teuerirt'e, 258 ; Nelson attributes the 
saving of his life to, 262, 530 ; St. 
Vincent promotes to commander 
at Nelson's request, 262 ; Nelson's 
disappointment in, 353 ; estrange- 
ment between Nelson and, 529-530 ; 
St. Vincent's assertion of Nelson's 
high opinion of, in early life, 530 
note. 

Nisbet, Dr. Josiah, first husband of 
Lady Nelsou, 56. 

Nisbet, Mrs. Josiah, Lady Nelson's 
name by first marriage. See Nel- 
son, Lady. 

Niza, INIarquis de, Portuguese admiral, 
commanding squadron under Nel- 
son's orders in the Mediterranean, 

1798, 1799, 316; conducts sea 
blockade of Malta, 316, 335, 405, 
•ill, 412, 41 5; ordered temporarily 
to defence ^i Me-ssina, 354 ; co- 
operates at .sea with Nelson, when 



expecting Bruix's fleet, 360, 364 ; 
limitations to Nelson's authority 
over, 391 ; recalled by Portuguese 
government, 411; Nelson forbids 
him to obey, 411, 412; Nelson's 
expressions of esteem for, 412 ; final 
recall allowed by Nelsou, 416. 



Okde, Admiral Sir John, governor 
of Dominica, 51 ; difficulty with 
Lord St. Vincent concerning Nel- 
son's appointment to command a 
squadron, 288, 289 ; assigned in 1804 
to command part of Nelson's 
station, from the Straits of Gibral- 
tar to Cape Piuisterre, 614; rela- 
tions between Nelsou and, 614, 615, 
623-628, 652; driven from before 
Cadiz by combined fleets, 647 ; 
popular outcry against, 651 ; Nel- 
son's complaint against, for not 
watching course of combined fleets, 
651 uote, 653-655; relieved from 
duty at his own request, 669. 

"Orient," I'rench flagship at the 
Battle of the Nile, present as the 
" Sans Culottes," in Hotham's 
action of March 13, 1795, 138, 139, 
141 ; at the Battle of the Nile, 296, 
299, 302, 303 ; blows up, 302 ; Nel- 
son's coffiu made from mainmast 
of, 683. 

Otway, Captain, commands Sir Hyde 
Parker's flagship at the Battle of 
Copenhagen, 471 ; advises against 
the passage of the Great Belt, 471 ; 
opposes the making signal to Nel- 
son to leave off action, 481 ; message 
from Parker to Nelson by, 481, 482. 



Paget, Sir Arthur, succeeds Hamil- 
ton, as British minister to Naples, 
340 ; quotations from the " Paget 
Papers," 340, 341, 423, 436. 

Pahlen, Russian minister of state 
during Nelson's command in the 
Baltic, 496; Nelson's correspondence 
with, 501-502. 

Palermo, Nelson's residence in, 338- 
360, 405-434. 

Palmas, Gulf of, in Sardinia, rendez- 
vous of Nelson's fleet, 580, 641, 645, 
646 ; Nelson learns there of Ville- 
neuve's second sailing, 645. 



760 



INDEX 



Parker, Commander Edward, aide 
to Nelson, 519 ; description of 
Nelson's celerity by, 519; takes 
part in boat-attack on the French 
A'essels off Boulogne, 521 ; mortally 
wounded, 521 ; death of, and Nel- 
son's distress, 526. 

Parker, Admiral Sir Hyde, succeeds 
Hotham in command in the Mediter- 
ranean, 170; Nelson's dissatisfaction 
with, 172 ; selected to command the 
Baltic expedition, 453 ; Nelson joins, 
as second in command, 460 ; cool 
reception of Nelson by, 461-403 ; 
growing iutiuence of Nelsou with, 
464—467 ; sluggish movements of, 
464, 492, 495, 496 ; Nelson's compre- 
hensive letter to, 469-470 ; autlior- 
izes Nelson's plan of attack, 472 ; 
the signal to leave off action, 480- 
484 ; intrusts negotiations to Nel- 
son, 490-494 ; relieved from com- 
mand, 498 ; Nelson's opinion of his 
conduct in the Baltic, 49'J, 544. 

Parker, Admiral Sir Peter, early 
patron of Nelson, and chief mourner 
at his funeral, 17-18 ; ])ersonaT kind- 
ness to Nelson of, 17, 25; Nelson's 
gratitude expressed to, 494, 609. 

Parker, Vice-Admiral Sir William, 
controversy with Nelson about the 
latter's account of the Battle of 
Cape St. Vincent, 237-241 ; remon- 
strates Avitii Lord St. Vincent for 
Nelson's appointment to command 
a detached squadron, 288, 289. 

Parker, Captain William, comman<ler 
of the frigate "Amazon," anecdote 
of Nelson, 288 note, 589 ; anecdote 
of Captain Hardy, 613 ; special mis- 
sion and singular orders given by 
Nelson to, 627-628 ; accorajjauies 
Nelson to the West Indies, 650, 656, 
657 ; final letter from Nelson to, 
673. 

Pasco, Lieutenant, Nelson's signal 
officer at Trafalgar, 710; anecdotes 
of Nelson by, 7io, 728, 729; makes 
the signals " England expects," etc., 
730, and for "close action," 731; 
wounded, 736 ; replies to a query 
made by Nelson while dying, 736. 

I'aul I., Emperor of Russia, congratu- 
lations to Nelson on the Battle of 
the Nile, 310; coalition of, with 
Austria and Naples, 343, 346-348; 



becomes Grand ISIaster of Knights 
of Malta, and seeks the restoration 
of tiie Order, 348-349; Nelson's 
compliments to, 413, 428; successes 
of his general, Suwarrow, 417 ; sub- 
sequent reverses, and anger of, 
again.st Austria and Great Britain, 
417, 458; indignation at the refusal 
of Great Britain to surrender Malta 
to himself, 458; renews the Armed 
Neutrality of 1780, with Sweden, 
Denmark, and Prussia, 458 ; Bona- 
parte's management of, 459; mur- 
der of, 490. 

"Penelope," British frigate, effica- 
cious action of, in compelling the 
surrender of the " Guillaunie Tell," 
French ship-of-the-liue, 431, 684. 

Pitt, William, Prime Minister of Great 
Britain, marked courtesy shown to 
Nelsou wiien last in England by, 
537 ; intercourse of Nelson with, 
just before Trafalgar, 678, 683. 

Porto Ferrajo, Island of Elba, seized 
by Nelson in 1796, 202; British 
forces retire from Bastia to, 216; 
naval evacuation of, superintended 
by Nelson, 221-224. 



Radstock, Admiral, Lord, quotations 
from letters of, relating to Nelson, 
130, 576 and note, 605, 608, 614, 651, 
652, 666, 667, 681. 

" Redoutable," French ship-of-the-line. 
Nelson mortally wounded by a shot 
from, 733-735. 

Registration of seamen. Nelson's plans 
for. 548. 

Revel, Nelson's desire to attack the 
Russian detachment of ships in, 468, 
470, 490, 492, 496, 500; Nelson's 
visit to, .501-503; results of Nel- 
son's visit, 503. 

Riou, Captain, commands the frigate 
" Amazon," and a light squadron 
in the Battle of Copenhagen, 475, 
478, 480, 482 ; obevs signal to retire, 
and is killed, 482.' 

Riviera of Genoa, operations of Nel- 
son upon the, 1795. 1796, 157-201; 
importance of, to the French, 157- 
162. 

Rochefort, the part of the French 
squadron at, in Napoleon's combina- 
tions, 633, 636, 670. 



INDEX 



761 



Rodney, Admiral, Lord, effect of his 
victory upou Nelsou's plans for Tra- 
falgar, 704. 

Rogers, Samuel, anecdote of Nelson, 
447. 

Rose, George, Nelson's interview with, 
in 1788, 70-72 ; accompanies Nelson 
on board ship bef(jre Trafalgar, 
691 ; Nelson's message to, when 
dying, 740. 

Ruffo, Cardinal, leader of the Neapoli- 
tan "Christian Army" at Naples, 
1799, 356; concludes with the in- 
surgents in the castles a capitula- 
tion which Nelsou annuls, 367-374 ; 
stormy interview of, with Nelson, 
375 ; evidence concerning relations 
between Nelson and, 375-390. 

'■ Sabina," Spanish frigate, captured 
by the " Miuerve " carrying Nelson's 
broad peudaut, 221 ; recaptured, 222. 

" San Josef," Spanish three-decked 
ship, taken possession of by Nelson 
at Battle of St. Vincent, 233-236; 
flagsliip to Nelsou in the Channel 
Fleet, 453, 460. 

" San Nicolas," Spanish eighty-gun 
ship, boarded bv Nelsou at Battle 
of St. Vincent, 233-236. 

Santa Cruz, Canary Islands. See 
Teneriffe. 

Sardinia, Island of, importance of, in 
Nelson's opinion, 575-579. 

Saumarez, Sir James, commands the 
" Orion," at the Battle of St. Vin- 
cent, 236 ; relieves Nelson in the 
blockade of Cadiz, 246 ; accom- 
panies Nelson as second in com- 
mand in the Nile campaign, 270, 
278, 284, 285 and note, 287, 295; 
at Battle of the Nile, 298, 302; 
sent to Gibraltar with the prizes, 
313, 315 ; Nelson's eulogy of, in the 
House of Lords, 541. 

Scott, Rev. A. J., private secretary to 
Sir Hyde Parker, aud afterwards to 
Nelson in the Mediterranean, 472, 
483 ; testimony of, to Nelson's 
religious feelings, 541 ; Nelson's 
method of transacting business 
with, 602-604; mention of Nelson's 
kindliness bv, 605-607 ; anecdote 
of Nelson, 654, 655 ; remark of Nel- 
son to, 717; at Nelson's death-bed, 
735, 740, 741. 



Scott, John, public secretary to Nel- 
sou, 602 ; remarks on the quickness 
of Nelson's intelligeuce, 605, and on 
his kindliness, 607 ; killed at Tra- 
falgar, 732. 

Sicily, importance of Malta to, 282 ; 
Nelson's auxiety for, in 1799, 354, 
359, 362, 365-367, 396, 398, 408 ; in 
1803-5, 562, 567-569, 571, 585, 644, 
647-648 ; Nelsou's estate of Bronte 
in, 405, 499. 

Sidniouth, Lord. See Addington. 

Smith, Sir Sidney, Nelson's indigna- 
tion at the mission of, to the Levant, 
343-345; Nelson's relations with, 
346-347 ; successful defence of Acre 
by, 418 ; Nelson's peremptory orders 
to, not to permit any Frenchman to 
quit Egypt, 420 ; nevertheless. Con- 
vention of El Arish couutenanced 
by, 421-422; Nelsou's distrust of, 
413, 569. 

Smith, Spencer, brother to Sir Sidney, 
minister aud joint minister of Great 
Britain to Constantinople, 343-346 ; 
letter of Nelson to, quoted, 348 ; 
becomes secretary of embassy, 414. 

Spaiu, Nelsou sees that Spain cannot 
be a true ally to Great Britain, 89 ; 
effect upon Nelson of declaration of 
war by, 207-213 ; political condition 
of, in 1803, 559; Nelson's views 
coucerning, 562, 574, 615, 618, 620, 
624, 625, 630; Nelson's letter of 
instructions to a captain contingent 
upon action of, 619. 

Spencer, Earl, first Lord of the Ad- 
miralty, 251 ; letters to Nelson 
from, quoted, 243, 309, 402, 432- 
433 ; lettei-s of Nelson to, quoted, 
251, 280, 309, 344, 395, 396, 397, 
408,409, 413, 414,418, 427,432,4.33, 
460 ; indicates to Jervis the Govern- 
ment's wish that Nelson command 
the s(|uadron in the JNIediterranean, 
274; Nelson tells him circumstances 
of surrender of castles at Naples, 
381 ; selects Sir Hyde Parker for 
Baltic command, 462. 

St. George, Mrs., description of Lady 
Hamilton, 325, 327 ; account of meet- 
ing with Nelson and the Hamiltous 
at"^ Dresden in 1800. 441-443; 
remarks likeness of Nelsou to the 
Russian Marshal Suwarrow, 442. 

" St. George," British ship-of-the-line, 



762 



INDEX 



Nelson's flagship in the Baltic ex- 
pedition, 460 ; Nelson quits, for the 
" Elephant," for the Battle of 
Copenhagen, 472. 

St. Vincent, Battle of Cape, 229-237. 

St. Vincent, Earl. See Jervis. 

Stewart, Lieutenant-Colonel, accom- 
panies the Baltic expedition on 
board Nelson's flagship, 460 ; narra- 
tive of the expedition, and anecdotes 
of Nelson bv, quoted, 460, 472, 474- 
476, 481-483, 485-486, 491, 501, 
503. 

Stuart, General, in command of the 
British troops at the siege of Calvi, 
114, 116-124; apparent friction 
between Lord Hood and, 121-124; 
Nelson's high opinion of, 119, 122. 

Suckling, Catherine, maiden name of 
Nelson's mother, 4. 

Suckling, Captain Maurice, Nelson's 
maternal uncle, 5 ; receives Nelson 
on board liis ship, the " Raisou- 
nable," on entering the navy, 5 ; care 
for Nelson during his early years, 
8-14 ; made Comptroller of the 
Navy, 14 ; procures Nelson's pro- 
motion to lieutenant, 14 ; death of, 
18 ; Nelson's care, when wounded 
at Teueriffe, to save the sword of, 
259 ; successful naval engagement 
of, on the date of Trafalgar, and 
expectation formed therefrom by 
Nelson, 717. 

Suckling, William, Nelson's maternal 
uncle. Nelson appeals to, for aid to 
marry, 36, 60 ; makes an allowance 
to Nelson, 60 ; letters of Nelson to, 
36, 60, 114. 

Suwarrow, Russian marshal, com- 
mands the combined Russian and 
Austrian troops in Italian campaign 
of 1799,356, 405, 409,417 ; personal 
resemblance of Nelson to, 442, 
501. 

Sweden, joins Russia, Denmark, and 
Prussia in the Armed Neutrality of 
1800, 456-459. 

Syracuse, Nelson refreshes his squad- 
ron in, before the Battle of the Nile, 
291-293 ; Nelson's opinion of, as a 
base for his operations after the 
battle, 315, 316; insecurity of, with 
headquarters at Palermo, 354 ; Nel- 
son ordered by Keith to make his 
headquarters at, 430. 



' Temekaike," British ship-of-the-line. 
Nelson's supporter at Trafalgar, 
725, 736. 

Teueriffe, Nelson's expedition against, 
253-261. 

Tetuan, Nelson's visits to, for water 
and fresh provisions, 653-655, 672 ; 
sends a detachment to, before Tra- 
falgar, 711. 

" Theseus," British ship-of-the-line, 
Nelson's flagship before Cadiz and 
at Teueriffe, 247-248, 256, 259. 

Thomson, name under which Nelson 
speaks of himself in his corre- 
spondence with Lady Hamilton, 531 ; 
and borne by his daughter prior to 
his own death, 715. 

Toulon, delivered by its inhabitants to 
Lord Hood, 91, 92 ; retaken by the 
French, 100; Nelson reconnoitres, 
169, 185 ; Jervis's efficient blockade 
of, 196, 206; Nelson's method of 
watching, 572-574, 576, 584, 589. 

Trafalgar, Battle of, general plan of 
action, as originally conceived, 696- 
698 ; discussed, 698-701 ; contrasted 
with tiie tactics of the battle as 
fought, 702-704 ; anecdote concern- 
ing its conception, 704 ; narrative of, 
713-742. 

Trench, Mrs. See St. George. 

Tripoli, maintains formal war with 
Naples and Portugal, for the pur- 
poses of piracy, 350, 410; Nelson's 
diplomatic difficulties with, 350, 351. 

Troubridge, Sir Thomas, nobly sup- 
ports Nelson in his initiative at the 
Battle of St. Vincent, 231-2-33, 237- 
241 ; advises andaccompaniesNelson 
in the Teueriffe expedition, 253-261 ; 
limitations of, 256, 257, and admir- 
able qualities, 2G0-261, 524 ; sent 
with a detachment of ten ships-of- 
the-line to join Nelson in the Nile 
campaign, 276, 278, 279 ; mentioned, 
281, 285, 291, 293; his ship, the 
" CuUoden," unfortunately grounds 
before getting into action at the Nile, 
301 ; Nelson's praise of, 311, 413 ; 
incidental services in the waters of 
Italy and Malta, 336, 347, 355-356, 
358,^359, 389, 396, 408, 415, 429; 
remonstrates witli Nelson on his 
life at Palermo, 340 ; sent bv Nelson 
on a special mission to Alexandria, 
344 ; singular anecdote of, 352 ; 



INDEX 



763 



letters of, to Nelson, 403, 429 ; Nel- 
son's petulant reproacli to, 428 ; 
strong remonstrances of, to Nelson, 
against quitting the blockade of 
Malta, 429 ; return of, to England, 
440; impression of, that Nelson will 
not serve again, 440 ; advice to Miss 
Knight concerning the Hamiltons, 
446 ; letter of Nelson to, concerning 
the sailing of the Baltic fleet, 461 ; 
beginning alienation of Nelson from, 
499, 523,524, 525, 549 ; St. Vincent's 
opinion of, 504, 523. 

Tunis, Nelson's mission to, in 1793, 
97-99 ; maintains formal war with 
Naples and Portugal, for the pur- 
poses of piracy, 350 ; Nelson's 
diplomatic difficulties with, 350, 351. 

Turkey, co-operates with Russia and 
Great Britain in the Mediterranean, 
1798, 335, 346, 348, 359, 360, 368, 
418-420; Nelson's sympathy with, 
against Russia, 348, 350 ; makes 
separate convention of El Arish 
with French, regardless of her 
allies, 421, 422; interests of, 
threatened in the Morea and in 
Egypt by the French in 1803-5, 562- 
564, 571, 584-586. 

Tuscany, attitude of, towards France, 
in 1794, 133, 137 ; importance of 
ports of, to France, 134; difficult 
neutrality of, 158, 198 ; Nelson ima- 
gines a French enterprise against, 
by sea, 183, 185, 186, 187 ; control of, 
obtained by the French, 198 ; Nel- 
son's operations on the coast of, 
201 ; blockade of Leghorn and 
seizure of Elba, 202 ; political con- 
dition of, in 1803-5, during Nelson's 
Mediterranean command, 559. 

Two Sicilies, tlie Kingdom of the, 
(Naples and Sicily,) Nelson's suc- 
cessful mission to, to obtain troops 
for the occupation of Toulon, 93 ; 
attitude towards France, 1795, 135; 
sends flotilla to aid Nelson, but too 
late in the season, 164; makes an 
armistice with France, 1796, 198; 
Nelson's interest keenly excited 
for, 210, 211; makes peace with 
P"' ranee, 1796, 214; di.ssatisfactiou 
with course of France, in 1798, 273 ; 
attitude of, towards France, dur- 
ing the campaign of the Nile, 281- 
283, 290, 291 ; Nelson's an.xieties 



for, 290; Nelson's extreme interest 
in, throughout his life, after his 
return from the Nile, 316, 332, 3,53, 
357, 366, 393-396, 398, 400-402, 408, 
409, 410, 437, 562, 566-570, 629- 
631, 645, 648-649 ; joy of, upon 
receipt of the news of Battle of 
the Nile, 317, 318 ; strategic weight 
of, in the counsels of Bonaparte, 
334 ; Nelson persuades, to declare 
war against France, 333-336 ; over- 
whelming defeat of, and flight of 
Court to Palermo, 337, 338; res- 
toration of the royal authority in 
Naples, 409 ; refusal of the king 
to reside in Naples, 408, 409 ; occu- 
pation of Adriatic coast of, by 
Bonaparte, 1803-5, 557. 



Vado, Bay of, occupied by Austriaus 
in 1795, 151; best anchorage be- 
tween Nice and Genoa, 159 ; im- 
portance of, to France, 159, 182, 
183; evacuated by Austriaus after 
tiie Battle of Loano, 171, 177 ; held 
definitively by French, 190. 

Valetta, French in Malta shut in, 335, 
349, 350, 410; Nelson's difficulties 
in maintaining the blockade, 410- 
412, 414-416; urgency of Spencer 
and Troubridge upon Nelson to 
await the capitulation of, 428, 429, 
431-434. 

" Vanguard," British ship-of-the-line. 
Nelson's flagship at the Battle of 
the Nile, commissioned, 265 ; dis- 
masted off Corsica, 277 ; at the 
Battle of the Nile, 298, 300 ; arrives 
at Naples, 317 ; Nelson's flag shifted 
from, to the " Foudroyant," 363. 

Vansittart, British envoy to Copen- 
hagen in 1801, 465-467; report of 
Danish defences, 467 ; explanations 
conveyed from Nelson to the Ad- 
miralty by, 467. 

" Victory," British hundred-gun ship, 
Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, 
Jervis's flagship at Battle of St. 
Vincent, 235 ; Nelson sails in, for 
the Mediterranean, 554 ; his long 
stay on board of, 593 ; returns to 
England, 675 ; again sails with 
Nelson, 692 ; at Battle of Trafalgar, 
719, 725-727, 731-735,736-739, 741. 

Villeneuve, French admiral, coni- 



•764 



INDEX 



mands the rear at the Battle of the 
Nile, 305 ; escapes with two ships- 
of-the-line and two frigates, . 305 ; 
indecision of, 306, 701 ; commands 
the Toulon squadron, after the 
death of Latouche-Treville, 623, 
636 ; Napoleon's orders to, 636 ; 
first sailing of, and disasters en- 
countered by, 637, 639, 640 ; second 
sailing of, from Toulon. 647 ; ar- 
rival at Cadiz and in the "West 
Indies, 647 ; Nelson learns of his 
passing the Straits, 648, and of liis 
destination to the West Indies, 654- 
657 ; leaves West Indies for Europe, 
on learning Nelson's arrival, 661 ; 
followed by Nelson, 662 ; engage- 
ment of, with Calder's fleet, 671 ; 
arrives at Ferrol, 672 ; sails from 
Ferrol, 679 ; arrival in Cadiz, 684 ; 
dispositions for battle, before Tra- 
falgar, 701. 718, 727, 728; com- 
mander-in-chief of the entire com- 
bined fleet, 713; encounter of his 
flagship and Nelson's, 731-733 ; sur- 
render of, 737. 
Villettes, British general, at the siege 
of Bastia, ill; Nelson's criticism 
on, when commander of the troops 
at Malta, 1803, 569; characteristic 
letters of Nelson to, 575, 617. 



Wellington, Nelson's one meeting 
with, 678. 

West Indies, Nelson's early service 
in, 14-17; called by Nelson "the 
station for honour," 32 ; Nelson en- 
forces Navigation Act in, 46-55 ; 
wishes to return to, in search of 
more active service, 92, 98 ; con- 
jectures destination of French Tou- 
lon fleet to, in 1804, 617, 635; 
importance of, to Great Britain, 



635; rendezvous fixed by Napoleon, 
for the concentration of his fleets, 
in 1805, 636, 646 ; Toulon squadron 
goes to, 647 ; Nelson ])ursues to, 
655, 656 ; Nelson's week in, in June, 
1805, 658-663; his estimate of his 
services rendered by going there, 
662, 665 ; Nelson returns to Europe 
from, 662-669. 

William Henr^', Prince, son of George 
III., and captain in the British navy, 
first meeting of Nelson with, 33, 34 ; 
description of Nelson at twenty-four, 
by, 33 ; accompanied by Nelson in 
visit to Havana,, 35 ; Nelson's asso- 
ciation with, in 1786-87, 63, 64; 
gives away the bride at Nelson's 
wedding, 64 ; intimacy of Nelson 
with, 74-75 ; returns with his ship 
from America, contrary to orders, 
75 ; at variance with the King, 75, 
76 ; made Duke of Clarence, 76 ; 
effect of intimacy with, upon Nel- 
son, 76 ; subsequent correspondence 
between Nelson and, 204, 208, 218, 
243, 401 ; continues his friendship 
to Lady Nelson, after her husband's 
alienation, 452. 

Woolward, Frances Herbert, maiden 
name of Lady Nelson, 56. 

Wurmser, Austrian marshal, suc- 
ceeds Beaulieu, after the latter's 
defeat by Bonaparte, in 1796, 
203 ; raises the siege of Mantua, 
203 ; Nelson's enterprise against 
Leghorn dependent on the suc- 
cess of, 205 ; defeated by Bona- 
parte, at Castiglione and Lonato, 
205. 

Wyndham, British minister to Tus- 
cany, mention of Nelson and the 
Hamiltons by, 437 ; strained rela- 
tions of, towards Nelson and the 
Hamiltons, 437. 



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4. Father .Jogues Haranguing the Mohawks. From the picture 

by Thule de Thulstrup. 

5. Father Hennepin Celebrating Mass. From the picture by How- 

ard Pyle. 

6. La Salle Presenting a Petition to Louis XIV. From the paint- 

ins- b}' Adrien Moreau. 

7. Jean IBaptiste Colbert. From a painting bj' Claude Leffevbre at 

Versailles. 

8. Jean Guyon before Bouill#.. From a picture by Orson Lowell. 

9. Madame de Frontenac. From the painting at Versailles. 

10. Entry of Sir William Phips into the Quebec Basin. From a 

picture by L. Rossi. 

11. The Sacs and Foxes. From the picture by Charles Bodmer. 

12. The Return from Deekfield. From the painting bj' Howard Pyle. 



FRANCIS PARK MAN'S WORKS. 



13. Sir William Pepperrell. From the painting by Smibert. 

14. Makquis de Beauharnois, Governor of Canada. From the 

painting by TonniiTes in the Mus(?e de Grenoble. 

15. Marquis de "Montcalm. From the original painting in the posses- 

sion of the jiresent Marquis de Montcalm. 

16. Marquis de Vaudreuil. From the painting in the possession of the 

Countess de Clermont Tonnerre. 

17. General Wolfe. From the original painting bj' Highmore. 

18. The Fall of Montcalm. From the painting bV Howard Pyle. 

19. View of the Taking of Quebec. From the "early engraving of a 

drawing made on the spot b^' Capt. Hervey Smytli", Wolfe's aid-de- 
camp. 

20. CoL. Henry Bouquet. From the original painting by Benjamin 

West. 

21. The Death of Pontiac. From the Picture by De Cost Smith. 

22. Sir William Johnson. From a mezzotint engraving. 

23. Half Sliding, Half Plunging. From a drawing by Frederic 

Remington. 

24. The Thunder Fighters. From the picture bj- Frederic Remington. 

It is hardl}' necessary to quote here from the innumerable tributes to so 
famous an American author as Francis Parkman. Among writers who 
have bestowed the highest praise upon his writings are such names as James 
Russell Lowell, Dr. John Fiske, President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard 
University, George William Curtis, Edward Eggleston, W. D. Howells, 
James Schouler, and Dr. Conan Doyle, as well as many prominent critics in 
the United States, in Canada, and in England. 

In two respects Francis Parkman was exceptionally fortunate. He chose 
a theme of the closest interest to his countr3'men, — the colonization of the 
American Continent and the wars for its possession, — and he lived through 
fifty years of toil to complete the great historical series which he designed 
when but a youth at college. 

The text of the New Library Edition is that of the latest issue of each 
work prepared for the press by the distinguished author. He carefully 
revised and added to several of his works, not through change of views, 
but in the light of new documentary evidence which his patient research 
and untiring zeal extracted from the hidden archives of the past. Thus he 
rewrote and enlarged "The Conspiracy of Pontiac" ; the new edition of 
"La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West" (1878), and the 188.5 
edition of " Pioneers of France " included very important additions ; and a 
short time before his death he added to " The Old Regime " fift}' pages, 
under the title of " The Feudal Chiefs of Acadia." The New Library Edition 
therefore includes each work in its final state as perfected by the historian. 
The indexes have been entirely remade. 



LITTLE, BROWI^, & CO., Publishers. 

254 Washington Street, Boston. 



ivmn^'^'^'^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





